How do I alter a pattern to make my object a different size?

Patterns will often indicate that the width of the finished object is based on a multiple of something. If you would like to change the size of an object when you’re working with a pattern, you can use a little math to determine how much bigger or smaller you need to go.

For example, the lemon peel stitch requires a single crochet stitch followed by a double crochet stitch, which makes a total of 2 stitches. Therefore, the width of a row made using lemon peel stitch would have to be a multiple of 2 stitches wide.

Say I were making a lemon peel washcloth, and the pattern said to make 10 stitches for each row for a width of 5 inches (just a made-up example). If I only wanted my washcloth to be 4 inches wide, I could do a little algebra and find out how many stitches per row I need:

[latex]\begin{align} \dfrac{10\text{ st.}}{5\text{ in.}}&=\dfrac{x\text{ st.}}{4\text{ in.}}\\ \\ 4\times \dfrac{10}{5}&=\dfrac{x}{\cancel{4}}\times \cancel{4} \\ \\ \dfrac{40}{5}&=x \\ \\ x&=8\text{ st.} \end{align}[/latex]