BEST WAY to re-size a pattern

[critterknitter]

Hello, I am struggling with the idea of how to go about adjusting a pattern for different sizes. I was actaully working on the baby Kimono pattern from Mason Dixon and I thought I would try and increase the size by increasing all of the stitch amounts by 25%. It was working fine until I got to the neck edge and then it became all lopsided with one sleeve being way longer than the other on either side of the neck. I tried to re-do the math to see where I went wrong but it just doesn't work right. The neck is way to small and the sleeves to long. I got so frustrated trying to un-knit back to the neck edge and then cast off more stitches so the neck would be bigger. I dropped a ton of stiches. Anyway, The whole thing has now been frogged and I don't know how to start again. How does one go about making a pattern bigger?Sorry to run on and on but I would appreciate any help. Thanks so much!

[mwedzi]

I'm wondering if your gauge is also off, since you said that you increased the stitch counts but a part of the sweater is still too small. Seems like if it would be big enough at, say, 20 stitches, it should be even bigger at 25 sts, not smaller.

Maybe you could try using a thicker yarn to get a bigger gauge. But the percentage thing should work reasonably well, I would have thought.

[Susan P.]

Hi critterknitter. The following is a fairly useful page about resizing and very practically written:

http://knitting.about.com/od/knittingskills/qt/bodynotes.htm

I've read some really complex explanations but that looks good. Let me know what you think?