Chances are as a knitter, you may not know all of the tips and tricks out there that you can use to make a pattern fit better on your body. That’s why I’m here to help. Though I don’t know everything, these are a few things I’ve learnt along the way. Since this topic of inclusivity has been mainly based around designing for plus size bodies - I figured I would add more tips there, even though these tricks are universal.
In this blog post we are going to go over: Short rows, bust darts, adjusting for length, shaping and shoulder shaping.
Patterns work in numbers of stitches. I like to imagine these along the lines of sewing; If you add more stitches, you add more fabric. If you take out stitches, you have less fabric. When a designer is grading a pattern (writing for multiple sizes), they are essentially adding and subtracting the amount of “fabric” that needs to fit over each sizes measurements.
With the conversation popping up more and more about size inclusivity in patterns, I wanted to create a 3 part series of blog posts on different ways how you can alter a pattern to fit better to your body shape.
The best part about knitting and crocheting is the simple fact that you can take out or add anything from a pattern to tailor it to your body. All of our bodies are shaped differently, which means that what may work for the designer, may not work for you. I like to think of patterns as blue prints that I can edit and make changes too - and you should too!
