Lately I have noticed a great amount of discussion from knitters who feel that designers on the whole are not really offering enough in the way of patterns. Obviously I don’t mean the patterns in general since the knitting market has many beautiful new designs being released daily by storms of new designers as well as the ever faithful guard of already established ones.

What I’m referring to is fit and the way it is addressed within a pattern. There are a lot of knitters out there who believe that designers are walking around with the insensitive perception that all women are perfectly proportioned and fit into the established sizing standards. This is a misconception that I think every designer has had to deal with at one point in time.  I don’t claim to know what every designer thinks, or even that there might not be some designers who actually think this way, but speaking for myself the proportion issue has not gone unnoticed.

Because I am a woman who is definitely not a perfect size anything I can see where Jane Q. Knitter gets frustrated. She is a plus size woman with small breasts and a small frame.  So when she casts on for that fabulous new sweater she is more than a little bummed when the sleeves are too long, and there is too much room in the bust. It discourages her knitting attempts and more often than not the designer takes the blame for the ill fitting garment.

I wish that the average knitter could actually see what goes into the design process. I confess that while I love designing more than I can say, it is not an easy or quick process and there is no magic wand involved (as much as I wish there were). I do it because I love it, plain and simple. I can say that I don’t believe there is a designer out there who thinks that the currently available sizing standards are going to work on every figure, but without those standards as a guideline the situation would be much worse.

The thing is, I could customize a pattern to work especially well on women with my shape: very short, ample 42″ chest and hips in proportion , and a short waist. Unfortunately that isn’t going  to work for Jane Q. Knitter’s friend, Mary who is also a 42″ chest, but is tall and has a long torso, and smaller breasts. See the predicament?

There is no way to address every woman’s body issues and still provide only 1 pattern, so the key at  least to my mind is to empower the knitter to learn what will work for them. As I designer I am trying to aid in the process by offering patterns with many sizes and more steps in between where the knitter chooses her size based on measurement and not suggested ease. I try as much as I can to incorporate tips and hints that make customizing your sweater as easy as possible because there is no one sweater that is perfect for every figure.

The only real solution is finding your personal key and sticking with it. It may take a little thought and a little work but if it means a perfect sweater every time, then it may be worth the effort. It’s time for knitters to step up and be not afraid of making every design their own.

Stay tuned for:

Finding what works -What works for me…
Dishing on my personal opinion and must have for knits that work for my shape.

Finding what works -What will work for you…
Compiling a list of what works for different body issues.

This 3 part post will be added to the Tips section for future reference and I will be addiing any good tips provided by readers (through email, contact, or comments) to the compiled list. If you have any great insight as to what works on your particular body issue I’d love to hear it.