I’d like to introduce you to a set of powerful tools that can unleash your creativity and confidence in your knitting skills.

I hear it over and over again in yarn stores and in my classes: “I just want to make a simple ________ (sweater, baby cardigan, hat, vest)!” My goal with Unpatterns® is to duplicate as closely as possible the informal knitter’s ‘apprenticeship’ I enjoyed with my aunt in Germany. She never knit from patterns; rather, she chose yarn and then designed her own simple, basic garments based on her measurements.

From her I learned that beautiful garments do not have to be complicated or hard to make. After all, the simplest garments are the most timeless, the ones we grab from our closets time and time again. And what joy to get that much wear and enjoyment from our handknit pieces!

An Unpattern works as a personal knitting coach, a voice that explains not just what to do, but how and why as well. Unpatterning is an interactive process: the knitter provides the gauge information from a swatch knitted to their specifications, and the dimensions for their garment taken from a ‘template garment.’ With those two pieces of information plugged into step-by-step worksheets, even a novice knitter can work up a classic, simple garment—of their own design!

Unpattern garments can cover you literally from head to toe: hats, vests, sleeveless shells, sweaters from the bottom up or the top down, and even socks!

Everything from swatching to edgings is covered in detail, with visual aids throughout to explain the logic behind the kniting. Once knitters understand the basics of garment construction, it’s not hard to work up their own pattern—especially with the support of a powerful teaching and design tool like Unpatterns.

Unpatterns help to liberate the average knitter (and yarn store owner!) from the frustration of not finding pattern support for their chosen yarn. And as an added bonus, Unpattern knitters become more independent as they learn the basics of garment shaping. As they become more intuitive with their knitting, they require less hands-on help from teachers and staff.

On every page of this site, there are links to more information about the individual Unpatterns, as well as a link to the stores nationwide in the United States which carry Unpatterns and my other pattern line, 2nd Nature Design.

With an Unpattern, some lovely yarn, circular needles, and a calculator, you can feed your creativity, clothe your loved ones, and get a great knitting education all at the same time.