This ten-part series is not about making you feel badly about what you have already knit. It is not about making you feel badly about your shape, or about making you feel like you can only knit certain things, in certain yarns. In writing these tutorials, I want to help you learn basic principles for dressing the figure you have in the most flattering way possible.

Every person reading these words has both fabulous assets to show off and a thing or two that you wish would disappear forever (or, in some cases, appear forever). The fact is this: Though I won’t argue that we’d all be healthier if we exercised more, wearing flattering clothes will do much more to change the way you feel about your body than losing weight or gaining muscle will.

As knitters, we have the ultimate power of creating a piece of couture perfectly suited to our figures, every single time. Your hand-knits should make you look and feel like a million bucks, and not just because of the skill required to form the stitches. I want to help you get there.

Previous installments have focused on determining your own shape, principles for using clothing to flatter, and specific garment elements. In this installment, the seventh out of ten, we wrap up the series of installments on specific garment elements by focusing on the hem of a sweater. The final three installments will cover waist shaping, implementation, and advanced topics. We’re almost there!

Another Horizontal Line.

Like necklines and sleeve cuffs, the bottom hem of a sweater draws a visual line across the wearer’s body and hence has a dramatic impact on the garment’s flattery to the wearer’s shape. That line can be accentuated and widened by ensuring the sleeves end at the same place on the wearer’s body; it can be minimized and narrowed a bit by breaking it up with an opened button band or deep ribbing. But any way you slice it, the hem of a sweater is going to draw some amount of attention to the place it falls on the wearer’s body.

For now, let’s consider sweaters that are neither cropped nor tunic-length. In other words, we’ll restrict our attention for a moment to sweaters that end somewhere in the wearer’s hip region. Knitters’ shapes can generally be binned into two categories: those flattered by a sweater that ends at the widest point of their hips and those that are not. (We’ll go back to extra-long or extra-short sweaters later in the installment.)

Those Who Do: Top-Heavy Shapes and Others.

It’s a good bet that top-heavy shapes will be most flattered by a sweater that ends at their widest point. Their shoulders, their bust, or both give a wide impression of their top half that needs to be balanced by a widening of their bottom half. Here, Danielle illustrates this point in my design Arm Candy: It falls exactly at the widest point on her hips and nicely balances her broad shoulders and large bust. Better yet, it’s paired with a deep neckline that breaks up the visual block of her chest.

One subtlety in using hem length to flatter a top-heavy shape involves whether or not the wearer is curvy as I’ve defined the term in this series: That is, whether the wearer has a waist dramatically smaller than her bust. Danielle is a fairly straight shape, with a waist that doesn’t pull in very far from her bust/hips. With very few exceptions, she will be most flattered by sweaters that end exactly at her widest point on the middle of her hips. Curvy top-heavy shapes can sometimes be more flattered by sweaters that end just above the widest point of their hips, as long as the sweater is paired with a bottom that broadens the hips like a bias-cut skirt. The hip-widening is handled by something other than the sweater, and the wearer’s small waist gets some attention from the slightly shorter sweater length.

Erin, standing second from the left, is wearing Thea Colman’s Nantucket Red in a length just slightly above the widest point of her hips. This combines with the widening horizontal distressing on her jeans and a narrow, deep neckline to draw the eye to her narrow midsection, a very flattering look.

Proportional shapes can also be flattered by sweaters with a hem ending at their widest hip point, provided those sweaters incorporate a widening element at the shoulders as well. Crystal looks fantastic in Bonne Marie Burns’s Twist Cardigan since the wide collar balances out the horizontal impression given by the hem.

This balancing act works for either curvy or straight proportional shapes. The width of the hem and shoulder region will give a straight shape like Crystal the illusion of a narrower waist (since the waist isn’t also widened by the sweater). Sweaters with a widening shoulder element and a hem at the widest hip point will also, if the fit in the waist is trim, exaggerate the difference in measurements for a curvy proportional shape. (Think about a classic hourglass shape in a tight cardigan worn closed only in the very middle—a very nice look.)

Of course, as with sleeves and necklines, the desired sweater length depends very much on the individual knitter’s measurements. We’ll go through a process for confirming your own ideal sweater measurements later in this installment.

Those Who Do Not: Bottom-Heavy Shapes and Others.

It’s a similarly good bet that most bottom-heavy shapes will be best flattered by a sweater that does not end at their widest point. Instead of drawing the eye to their widest feature, most bottom-heavy shapes look best by drawing the eye upward toward their waist, shoulders, or bust. Sarah looks great in Green Gable, which ends just about four inches above the widest point of her hips. This lets the width of her hips become a nice contrast with her waist instead of being a defining feature. And though it’s a topic for another time, this piece has the added benefit of the brighter color of the top drawing attention away from her dark pants.

Curvy or straight, most bottom-heavy shapes look best in sweaters with only a little ease at the hem. It is most flattering to have the hem line (on the upper hip) appear narrower than the widest point of the hip. Since most hand-knit fabric is fairly stiff, too much ease at the hem will make the upper hip appear as wide as the lower hip.

Those bottom-heavy shapes whose widest point lies entirely below their hips, like me, have quite a bit of leeway in terms of where the sweater hem falls since the legs flare out from any point in the hip region. I typically choose a length just above the middle of my hip, giving my legs a bit of extra length.

Curvier bottom-heavy shapes look best in sweaters that are close-fitting and end somewhat after the narrowest point of their waist, so that the sweater highlights their curves without breaking them up. (This is especially true for short-waisted shapes.) Straight bottom-heavy shapes simply want to ensure the hem lies above the widest point of their hips.

Finally, proportional shapes can once again look great in sweaters that end above (or below!) the widest point of their hips, provided any visual elements in the sweater shoulder region are appropriately balanced by the hem. Since a hem that ends above the wearer’s widest point will not broaden the hip area, proportional shapes knitting sweaters that either narrow or are neutral to the torso will be most flattered by a slightly shorter sweater. Below, Jess provides a great example in a to-be-released pattern from Thea Colman. The vertical band of the cardigan and wide shawl collar give a neutral impression of her torso. The shorter hem, ending well before the widest point of her hips, shares that neutral impression and Jess’s figure retains its balanced proportions.

More Edge Cases.

Like with sleeve length, there are a number of special circumstances and edge cases where the general rules don’t necessarily apply. The first of these is an edge case of the knitter: How having a protruding belly affects what sweater hem length you should choose.

A Belly.

There are all kinds of reasons one might have a protruding belly. It’s a fact many mothers have to face eventually (the skin of the stomach, once stretched to giant proportions, doesn’t always want to snap back). Many of us get a bit of a potbelly with age, still more just have something of a pudge no matter how many crunches we do. The thing about flattering a figure with a belly is that although most women who possess one won’t believe me, it’s actually not a very prominent feature. The eye is much more likely to be drawn to the bust, the legs, the hair, or any number of other parts—provided whatever shirt the knitter is wearing doesn’t draw explicit attention to the stomach. Naturally, sweaters with negative ease in the stomach will usually call attention to that region and are not very flattering choices for these knitters. Few women with a stomach will purposely wear skin-tight tops, but the hem length of a sweater can often call attention to a belly inadvertently.

Consider the side-view picture you took in Installment 4:

Knitters with a protruding stomach will have an extra bump on their front that is missing in the back, which causes the length from their shoulder to sweater hem to be longer in the front than the back—just like a large bust. And, just like a large bust, that imbalance will cause sweater fronts to ride up just a bit. This can be extremely unflattering to a knitter with a bit of a belly, as the hem tends to expose a bit of skin when it rides up, drawing the eye directly to the stomach.

The solution to this is two-fold. First, make sure that the sweater is long enough overall not to leave a good bit of the stomach showing. Second, add short-rows to the bottom of the sweater front to give just a bit of extra room to that stomach. The added length will keep the sweater from riding up and allow the eye to be drawn to all of the right places on the wearer’s body. How much length to add depends on the size of the discrepancy in length between the front and the back. You will generally want to add the short rows in the bottom few inches of the sweater, and they should usually stretch most of the way across the front of the sweater.
Note that bottom-heavy knitters may need to play something of a balancing game between ensuring the sweater is long enough to cover most of the stomach and short enough to end above the widest point of the hips. Two inches above the widest hip point is often a good compromise between these two pulls.

The next set of unusual edge cases involve differences in the sweater, not the knitter.

The Cropped Sweater.

Definition time: A sweater can be called “cropped” if it ends at or above the waist. Few shapes are truly flattered by a cropped sweater, and we had no examples of them in our photo shoot. A cropped sweater will shorten the torso as it breaks up the length into at least two blocks of color. It will also draw the attention directly to where the hem falls on the wearer, often either exactly at the waist or just under the bust as in a bolero.

Top-heavy shapes are almost universally not flattered by a cropped sweater length, as it focuses attention on their widest point. Bottom-heavy shapes with large busts, particularly if they are also curvy, tend not to be flattered by these sweaters either, since they often make the wearer look bulky. Proportional and bottom-heavy shapes with small busts, especially if they also have longer waists, can be flattered by cropped sweaters so long as they are paired with something fairly plain. The small bust doesn’t distort the smaller amount of fabric in a cropped sweater, the longer torso benefits from being broken up into blocks of color, and the wearer’s torso gets all the attention.

Fortunately, lengthening a sweater is usually a very simple modification, so any cropped sweater pattern that catches your fancy can be turned into something much more flattering.

The Tunic.

The opposite of a cropped sweater, tunics are those sweaters whose hem falls entirely below the hip region.

A tunic both lengthens the torso relative to the legs and draws the eye directly to the hem of the sweater. This makes it a poor choice for shapes whose thighs are their widest point and who have longer torsos:

However, many short-waisted shapes with long legs can be very flattered by tunic-length sweaters. Jess’s top, below, is a tunic-length sweater with very definite shaping. It looks great on her.

When choosing tunic-length sweaters it is important to ensure that the wearer’s curves are highlighted with shaping—otherwise the effect can be extremely boxy.

Other Considerations.

Finally, the stitch pattern at the hem can either minimize or accentuate the attention line drawn on the wearer’s body. Plain sewn hems, without any adornment, are the most minimizing hem treatments and tend to blend in best with whatever skirt or pant the wearer is sporting. This can be great for especially bottom-heavy shapes, as any stitch pattern on the top of the sweater draws all visual attention.

Most other stitch patterns and hem treatments will draw the eye to the hem, accentuating the horizontal visual impression. This includes ribbing, bands of lace, colorwork, and other stitch patterns in a band around the hem. The larger or more differentiated the hem treatment is, the more attention it will draw.

Making Modifications.

Like necklines and sleeve length, where a particular sweater hem will fall on your body depends on both the sweater’s measurement and your own. When starting a pattern, please look carefully at the schematic. The key measurement is the length of the sweater from hem to armhole shaping. In Installment 4, you took both hip-to-waist and waist-to-armhole measurements. Adding them together gives you a good first guess for a desired hem-to-armhole measurement for an average sweater.

But once you’ve picked a sweater you’d like to knit, you’ll probably want to refine this number slightly. If you have a great sweater whose length you’d like to match, and it has similar ease to the new sweater you’ve chosen, you can simply measure the old sweater from hem to armhole shaping. (If the old sweater has substantial negative ease and the new sweater does not, you’ll want to subtract up to an inch/2.5cm from the old sweater’s length.)

Otherwise, I advise you to do a little experimentation. Grab a long T-shirt or other shirt that fits you well but without negative ease and a handful of safety pins. Put the shirt on and “hem” it by folding it under and pinning. Try a few different lengths until you hit on one that works for your body and the sweater you’ve chosen. Then, keeping the shirt pinned, measure from the new “hem” to the armhole.

Now that you have a desired measurement, there are basically only two modifications you could make to the sweater: You’ll either be lengthening or shortening the body of the sweater. In order to do either, though, you need to know where on the body of the sweater you’ll be adding or subtracting length. Let’s break the body of a sweater below the armhole up into five zones:

1. The straight portion of the sweater before any waist shaping begins
2. The decrease portion of the shaping
3. The straight portion of the sweater at the narrowest portion of the waist
4. The increase portion of the shaping
5. Any portion above all waist shaping that is worked straight to the armholes

If you’re not afraid of the math, it’s actually pretty easy to make each of these five zones exactly correspond to your own measurements. But in this tutorial let’s deal with a simplified view of shaping. We’ll call zones 1 and 2 the bottom portion of the body, zone 3 the middle, and zones 4 and 5 the top.

In Installment 4, I asked you to take two relevant measurements: Hip to waist and waist to armhole. Compare those against the pattern schematic and note where you need to add or subtract length. The length adjustment may be evenly distributed across the body of the sweater (often typical for a tall knitter or someone with a long torso) or it may not be (for example, someone with an especially short or long waist).

If the total difference in length is small (say, under ½”/1.25cm in each of the three combined regions of the body), you may safely add or subtract the length in just the straight portions of the body of the sweater: zones 1, 3, and 5. If the total difference in length is more than 1½”/3.75cm, though, you will probably want to adjust the length of the shaping portions of the sweater. The simplest way to do this is as follows:

1. Calculate the total number of rows in your modified shaping section by multiplying your desired length by the row gauge.
2. Divide that number of rows by the number of actual increase or decrease rows to get your new shaping instructions. (Round down.)
3. Add any additional length from Step 2 to one of the straight portions of the sweater body.

If you’d like to be more precise in your modifications, divide your own body up into the same 5 zones, and perform the above calculation for any shaping instructions in zones 2 and 4.

As with sleeves and necklines, altering the length of patterned portions of the sweater can complicate things slightly. If the pattern is not all over, but only on the hem of the sweater, I suggest adding or subtracting the length entirely outside the patterned portion whenever possible.

And remember: If in doubt, draw it out! Modifying a hem is quite a simple calculation for most sweaters, and it has a huge impact on flattery.

What’s Up Next.

Sweater hems have a substantial impact on whether a sweater flatters. In this installment, we’ve covered principles for determining where you want your hems to end and given you tips on performing those modifications. In the next installment, we’ll cover the large and largely misunderstood topic of shaping. Installments 9 and 10 will close out the series with collected thoughts on implementation and advanced topics like custom sweater design.

I feel passionately that you should have a closet full of hand-knits that you’re proud to wear wherever you go. Helping you understand what your own shape is and how you can choose knitting patterns that will make you look your best are the reasons I’m writing this tutorial series. I hope you’re enjoying them—we’re almost there!

(This tutorial is available in a PDF formatted for printing for a nominal charge of US$2.00:
It is 8 printed pages.)

…writing the next installment of Fit to Flatter (up Sunday night!), so that I can get to putting together my exciting new furniture from Ikea. I’m finally going to have a real craft space and desk.

What am I doing instead?

Taking pictures of part of my next design.

And maybe thinking about what to do with one of these beauties. Which color do you like best?

This ten-part series is not about making you feel badly about what you have already knit. It is not about making you feel badly about your shape, or about making you feel like you can only knit certain things, in certain yarns. In writing these tutorials, I want to help you learn basic principles for dressing the figure you have in the most flattering way possible.

Every person reading these words has both fabulous assets to show off and a thing or two that you wish would disappear forever (or, in some cases, appear forever). The fact is this: Though I won’t argue that we’d all be healthier if we exercised more, wearing flattering clothes will do much more to change the way you feel about your body than losing weight or gaining muscle will.

As knitters, we have the ultimate power of creating a piece of couture perfectly suited to our figures, every single time. Your hand-knits should make you look and feel like a million bucks, and not just because of the skill required to form the stitches. I want to help you get there.

Previous installments have covered all the generalities of determining your own shape and what sorts of sweaters flatter it. Now it’s time to tackle individual garment elements that are easy to modify and have a big impact on flattery. In this installment we’ll focus exclusively on necklines. Future installments will cover other garment elements, advanced sweater modification, and custom sweater design.

The Basic Question: Broad or Deep?

There are nearly as many necklines out there as there are women to wear them. Basic crew, turtleneck, V-neck, scoop neck, square neck, sweetheart, cowl, shawl collar, boat neck—and I’m probably forgetting some. If boiled down to their bare essence, necklines have two dimensions: their breadth and their depth. The breadth can form a strong horizontal visual impression, and the depth a strong vertical impression. Viewed in this way, all necklines can be binned into one of four groups. In this part of the installment I’ll go through the four groups and outline the visual principles at hand, explain what types of figures they flatter, and include example photographs.

Broad, Shallow Necklines.

Broad, shallow necklines offer an entirely horizontal impression. This group includes boat necks and most cowls. The horizontal line widens the shoulders, and sweaters with these necklines tend to look great on bottom-heavy shapes.

Boat necks, like the ones pictured here on Sarah and Thea, are extremely flattering to smaller-busted shapes. They often have a bit of detail that draws the eye upward from the bust and nicely frames the collarbones, a lovely part of most women’s physique.

The shallowness of these necklines and the detail in the neckline drawing the eye upward often means that boat necks leave a lot of plain fabric over the bust. For smaller-busted shapes that’s great, but it is harder to make a boat neck flattering on a bustier shape. Cowl necks, like the one pictured here, are a great alternative:

Broad, shallow necklines like cowls are more versatile than boat necks. While they still look great on smaller-busted shapes, they can also be very flattering on bustier bottom-heavy shapes (and much more modest than the broad and deep necklines I’ll talk about below). The fold of fabric like on the sweater pictured above softens the impression of miles of stockinette over the bust, but the neckline still retains the widening properties of a broad, shallow neckline. The collarbones are still framed nicely, as well.

Broad, shallow necklines are great for bottom-heavy and proportional shapes, particularly those with smaller busts. You can tell if a neckline is broad and shallow if it is substantially wider than it is deep and does not dip close to the wearer’s cleavage.

Narrow, Shallow Necklines.

Both the classic crew neck and turtleneck fall into this category of neckline. These necklines basically offer no visual impression at all. They neither broaden nor narrow the shoulder area or torso. Accordingly, this group of necklines flatters only a small group of women: Largely proportional, smaller-busted shapes.

The advantage to this type of neckline is that it provides a maximal canvas for the knitwear designer to show off cables, lace patterns, colorwork, and the like. It requires very little in the way of adjusting a motif to accommodate shaping: All parts of a stitch motif are basically ended at the same time. This makes it a popular choice for heavily-patterned Aran sweaters, complicated Fair Isle, and so forth.

Turtlenecks flatter women with smaller busts (the fabric on a turtlenecked sweater goes in one continuous swath from hem to chin), proportional shapes (they are neither broadening nor narrowing), and long necks. Jess, pictured here, is a perfect example of a shape flattered by a turtleneck.

Crew necks, like the one pictured on Sarah below, can flatter a broader range of shapes in that they are the natural neckline for a yoked sweater. For this reason, some crew necks are very flattering on smaller-busted bottom-heavy shapes. However, the visual motifs of the yoke must be horizontal. Sarah is wearing a crew-necked sweater whose brightly colored and horizontal motif nicely widens her shoulders and balances her hips. (Note that in this case, it’s the colorwork doing the widening, not the neckline.)

As the easiest necklines to incorporate into a design, narrow, shallow necklines are much more common in knitting patterns than one might expect. If you’re not a small-busted proportional shape, the good news about narrow, shallow necklines is that they are mechanically the easiest to modify. We’ll talk more about modification later in this installment.

Broad, Deep Necklines.

Wide V-necks and scoops, square necklines, and sweetheart necklines are all great examples of the third group: Necklines that are both broad and deep. They offer a balanced visual impression that is both horizontal and vertical, making them a fantastic choice for bustier bottom-heavy and proportional shapes (depending on how that breadth is balanced out on the hem of the garment).

Wide V-necks and scoop necklines are very similar, and a larger bust is pretty necessary for these necklines to be flattering. This is particularly true if the sweater is fitted—a fitted deep scoop like the one Diana is wearing below begs for something to fill it out. If you’re leery of showing too much skin, wearing a camisole beneath a sweater with this neckline allows for both modesty and the flattering effect of breaking the bust up visually.

Sweetheart necklines look great on busty bottom-heavy and proportional figures, but can also look good on those with a smaller bust if they’re well-fitted. Below, Jess wears a top with a sweetheart neckline that is very flattering. The key thing to notice about a sweetheart neckline is that the widest point (and the focus of the horizontal visual element) lies well above the fullest part of the bust. This offers the flattery of breaking up the bust and widening the shoulders while at the same time drawing the eyes up toward the collarbones.

Square necklines are nice choices for many bottom-heavy and proportional shapes as, they widen the shoulders and break up the torso without looking awkward on a smaller bust. (We didn’t have any sweaters with a square neckline during our photo shoot day. Some nice examples include Mary Jane by Rachel Bishop and Sarah Johnson and Kirsten Kapur’s Wood Hollow Vest.)

Finally, it is possible for a neckline to appear both broad and deep without leaving the wearer’s torso exposed: A neckline is defined both by the skin it makes visible and by the decorative elements around it. As long as the neckline has a portion that is somewhat deep, a wide collar or decoration can exaggerate the whole neckline into a broad, deep shape. I’ll close out this group with two pictures illustrating how this can be done. In the first, Crystal is wearing a wide-collared cardigan unbuttoned slightly. (The cardigan is Bonne Marie Burns’s excellent Twist Cardigan.) The V shape of the neckline created with the top button open makes the neckline read as a deep neckline; the wide spread of the collar widens the shoulders without baring them.

The shape of my green top is similar: A wide horizontal line at the shoulders, coupled with a deeper notch below the chin, surrounded by an eye-catching block of patterned fabric. This has the same visual appearance as a wide, deep V like that of my sweater Arm Candy, without baring as much skin.

Narrow, Deep Necklines.

Narrow, deep necklines offer up a single visual element: a vertical line from the collarbones to the closure of the neckline. Most V-necks and many scoop necklines belong in this category, and they are great for anyone with an ample chest and broad shoulders. They break up the bust and torso while narrowing it at the same time. As such, they’re a great choice for top-heavy and proportional figures.

Deep V-necklines like those shown below on Danielle and Caro are great for anyone wanting to narrow their torso—in a proportional way for proportional shapes, or without balancing elements for top-heavy shapes. They will work on larger and smaller busts, provided they are worn with negative ease at the bust.

Narrow, deep necklines include cardigans intended to be worn open or whose visual elements at the collar continue down to the hem in some other way: These can be very flattering if you’d like to draw attention away from your stomach or narrow the appearance of your torso without exposing a lot of skin—good choices for top-heavy shapes of any kind, or proportional shapes with larger busts.

Other Considerations.

Although they aren’t strictly neckline issues, I thought I’d use this installment to mention some special considerations in the neck-shoulder area that you might want to keep in mind when choosing a pattern. One such consideration is the shape of your shoulders. Generally speaking, those of us with shoulders that are square and fairly well-defined are flattered by most any sweater pattern. Set-in sleeves and smooth fabric over the shoulders alike keep the definition of that shoulder line. I have very defined shoulders that are clearly visible when I wear Thea Colman’s Short Lucky, which is knit with no shoulder seams.

Those knitters with rounded shoulders need to take more care, however. A sweater that is yoked or in some other way drapes over the shoulders will emphasize that rounding. These knitters will be most flattered by sweaters with a structured, well-defined shoulder seam. (Note that using a three-needle bind-off rather than seaming the shoulders by mattress stitch will lessen the visual structure of that seam!)

In the two pictures below, we see Kathy in a structured-shoulder top and in the Hourglass sweater, a raglan pattern without top shoulder seams.

It is a little unfair to include the second picture as comparison since there are other unflattering elements at work here for Kathy (sleeve length, those raglan seams, and the lack of any strong visual element at the top of the sweater). But if you restrict your attention to just her shoulders and trace a line around the outline of her shoulders you can see that they’re nicely squared by the seams of the floral top and left round when she’s wearing Hourglass.

(Quick side note: Women with a rounded upper back have a similar consideration in that they should also avoid yoked sweaters and choose patterns with structured seams in the neckline and torso area for maximum flattery.)

Sweaters constructed with raglan seams offer another special consideration in the shoulder/neckline area. Generally speaking, those with ample busts are not flattered by raglan seams, which draw a visual triangle whose points are the center of the collarbone and the armpits. This visually broadens the line between the armpits, which typically falls somewhere around the bust.

On smaller-busted women like Sarah (particularly if the woman also has a bottom-heavy shape), raglan construction looks great because it broadens the right area:

On larger-busted women like Erin, raglan seams tend to make the bust appear even larger than it is, and out of balance with the rest of the wearer’s figure.

It’s once again a little unfair to include this picture since there are other unflattering elements going on (Erin has neither a small bust nor a long neck, and the sweater and its sleeves are too long for her). But again, if you restrict your attention to the seams only you’ll see that they basically form two arrows pointing at the widest part of Erin’s bust. While there may be cases where this is what a busty knitter wants, generally speaking larger busts are flattered by a more subtle approach.

Modifying That Neckline.

A guiding principle when considering a neckline is that broad/narrow and deep/shallow are relative terms. They refer to how a sweater’s neckline falls on your specific body. When starting a pattern, it is a good idea to look carefully at the pattern’s schematic and compare it to the list of measurements you took after reading Installment 4. Broad necklines will stretch the lion’s share of the cross-chest measurement (and boat necks should be within 1”/2.5cm of it). Deep necklines should be within 2”/5cm of your longer cleavage depth (which you can tell by subtracting the length from hem to the start of the neck shaping from the overall length of the sweater).

When you examine a pattern schematic and compare it to your own measurements, you’re likely to want to make a few modifications to ensure that the sweater fits you perfectly. Let’s examine the steps one would need to take to alter the depth and width of an existing neckline in turn.

Altering Depth.

Changing the depth of a neckline without altering the width can be a fairly simple calculation. If the modification you want to make simply lengthens without changing the shaping (say, adding a few inches of depth to a crew neck to make it a scoop), you simply begin the neck shaping closer to the hem of the sweater. To make a neckline less deep, read the pattern closely. In many patterns, the sides of the sweater are worked straight after finishing the neck shaping. If this is the case, you can simply begin the shaping farther from the hem of the sweater than specified in the pattern.

Sometimes, you will want to alter the shaping of a neckline when you are lengthening or shortening it. One common calculation is changing the rate of decreases in a neckline to ensure that the neckline is shorter or longer. In this case, divide the total number of inches you’d like the neckline to span by the number of stitches to be decreased. Multiply the resulting number by your row gauge to calculate the number of rows in between each decrease. Round this number down if necessary.

Here’s an example: A V-neck sweater has a neckline depth of 5”/13cm, decreases 10 stitches per side, and has a row gauge of 8 rows to the inch/2.5cm. My torso is significantly longer than the pattern specifies, and I would like the neckline to span 8”/20cm instead. Working in Imperial measurements for the moment, I divide the number of inches I’d like the neckline to span (8) by the number of stitches to be decreased (10): I must decrease one stitch every 0.8”. I multiply that by my row gauge (8) and get one stitch decreased every 6.4 rows. Since I can always work straight after finishing the decreases, I round that number down to every 6 rows.

This kind of calculation works great for lengthening or shortening a V-neck, and with a bit of modification works great for scoop necks as well (you’ll want to ensure you work a scoop neck straight for some time after knitting the curve of the neckline, so don’t include those “straight” inches/cm in the total neckline depth in the above calculation).

If you want to make different kinds of alterations to the shape of a neckline—for example changing a square to a scoop, or a V to a sweetheart—drawing the front of the sweater from armholes to shoulders on knitters’ graph paper is probably the easiest solution. Note the number of stitches in each row of the pattern as written and draw the original neckline on the graph paper. Then, in another color, chart out your desired neckline (ensuring that you end with the correct number of shoulder stitches). You can now translate your drawing on the paper to line-by-line instructions for the new neckline.

Altering Width.

Changing the width of a neckline can get a bit more complicated than altering the length, but it is still very doable for most sweaters. First, calculate how many stitches you want to add or subtract from the existing shoulder stitches by measuring where you’d like the neckline to fall (this is often easily calculated from your cross-chest measurement).

To subtract stitches from the shoulders or widen the neckline, you must add extra decreases to the existing instructions. This might or might not cause you to have to recalculate the rate of decrease, as specified above. If you add the decreases mostly at the bottom of the neckline, your neckline will take on more of a square or scoop shape. If you add decreases just at the top, you will get a neckline somewhat like that of the green shirt I wear in the “broad, deep necklines” section of this installment. If you add the decreases evenly through, you will get a smooth diagonal line (like a V-neck).

To add stitches to the shoulders or narrow the neckline, you must subtract some decreases from the existing instructions. For a V-neck, simply recalculate the rate of decreases as specified above. For scoop necklines, remove them evenly from the bind-off portion of the neck and the curved sides of the neckline, keeping all alterations near the bottom of the neck. For more complicated necklines, I recommend drawing the torso of your sweater as written on knitters’ graph paper and then drawing your desired shape, as described above.

Altering Both.

Some neckline alterations might be a simple combination of the previous calculations: To narrow and shorten a V-neck, simply perform the calculation described in “altering depth” using the desired number of decreases instead of the number specified in the pattern.

However, for many major neckline re-calculations, drawing the desired neckline visually on knitters’ graph paper is the easiest way. (At least if you’re making the modification only for your own version of the pattern!)

When the sweater is patterned.

Altering the neckline of a patterned sweater can get a little tricky but follows the same principles outlined above. Simple stitch patterns like ribbing or a pattern with a small repeat don’t really affect calculations at all. For more complicated lace patterns, cables, or colorwork, consider how difficult it is to “break up” a repeat via shaping: Whether the straight portion of a neckline can easily be worked on a partial repeat (like most colorwork, for example) or if you need to have the entire motif to make sense (e.g., a cable). If a partial repeat is easy, perform modifications as described above. If it is difficult to break up the motif, consider length changes that simply move all existing shaping up or down and width changes that take away or add a multiple of the number of stitches in the motif.

And remember: When in doubt, draw it out. This is far easier to do than most knitters believe, and very reliable.

What’s Up Next.

Necklines can have a dramatic effect on whether a particular pattern flatters your shape, and they’re easier to modify than one might think. In the next installment we’ll provide a similar in-the-weeds look at sleeves.

I feel passionately that you should have a closet full of hand-knits that you’re proud to wear wherever you go. Helping you understand what your own shape is and how you can choose knitting patterns that will make you look your best are the reasons I’m writing this tutorial series. I hope you’re enjoying them!

(This tutorial is available formatted for printing for a nominal charge of US$2.00: It is 10 printed pages.)

Pattern: Adelina

Yarn: Rowan Calmer, in coffee bean and… purple.

Time Elapsed: A couple of weeks. Most of this (all but the collar) was done during the knitting olympics this year. Then the collar waited while I designed and knit Hootenanny. *cough*

Pattern Notes: This fitted V-neck sweater has a bold stripe of color to give it a modern, figure-flattering edge. The sweater is knit flat in pieces, with two options for sleeve length. The sleeves and hem are done with fairly deep 1×1 rib. Vertical darts, also known as princess seams, are used for shaping. The color stripe from the front is continued horizontally around the hips and at the square neckline on the back, but not vertically. The vertical stripe on the front is accomplished via intarsia.

(All images in this page copyright splityarn. She’s awesome.)

The color combination of the stripe and main color can be adjusted to flatter a variety of body types. Those who are bustier on top and have slim hips should choose a trim color brighter than the main body. Bottom-heavy shapes should do it the other way around, with a darker stripe. Those in between can keep the brightness of the two colors the same and play with hues.

Princess seams allow for extremely flexible shaping, customized to fit your body. Should you desire less waist shaping than specified, you can either omit the shaping rows entirely, or omit only the shaping on the front of the sweater. Omitting only the front shaping (or using a smaller amount of shaping on the front) can provide a very nice fit on the small of the back without stretching the sweater too tight in the waist. Bustier women can accommodate their needs by performing more increases on the front of the sweater, and not in the back. This creates vertical bust darts that are exceedingly flattering. The extra stitches increased can be decreased into the neckline, preferably outside the color stripe.

I’ve written it up in 7 sizes, from 32″ to 50″ in the bust. I think it looks best with 0″ ease in the bust, and 1-2″ positive ease in the waist. In the pictures, I’m wearing the sweater with 0″ ease in the bust and about 2″ of positive ease in the waist.

One of my favorite elements about this sweater is the modern, squared shape of the back neck colorwork.

The crisp lines continue on the front, where the shaping allows the colorwork to gracefully part around the V-neckline.

Overall, I couldn’t be more pleased with the way this turned out. I hope you like it too! You may purchase it for US$6.00 from within ravelry or on this page.

With all of that, it’s a wonder any knitting happened at all.

1. February Baby Sweater and booties, 2. Syncopated Cap, 3. Flower Basket Shawl, 4. First Rivendell completed before baby born., 5. Cleopatra wrap, finished, 6. A. in sweater, 3, 7. Every shot of a toddler’s feet is blurry, 8. Final shot of beret and socks, 9. Christine’s baby blanket, I, 10. Bear in cable tank top, 11. Matinee Coat, I, 12. St. Anastasia, 13. Conwy, I, 14. Pomatomus, Complete, 15. DSC_0012.JPG

At the start of the year, I hopped onto this crazy idea to knit a pair of socks each month. Kelp did a great job (seriously, click through the link–you’ll be amazed), but I failed pretty miserably at this task. In fact, it’s pretty clear when my carpal tunnel hit and then disappeared–I didn’t finish a thing all summer.

Unable to knit, I finally picked up a new hobby that I’d been thinking about since my dad’s mom died.

I’m not sure this will ever come even remotely close to knitting in my affections (that last quilt has sat, quilted and bound, awaiting just the final hem, for 2 months now), but the quilting definitely kept me sane while I couldn’t knit.

What’s on the horizon for 2009? Hopefully our personal lives will be smooth sailing with no major disruptions. We could definitely, definitely use a quiet year to enjoy our many blessings.

Happy new year, everyone! Thanks so much for joining me here even when the knitting pickings are slim. I wish you all exactly the kind of 2009 you’re hoping for.

I can’t believe I’m really going to make a pictureless post, but I wanted to mention something here. My stash has really been stressing me out lately, and the Sundara Seasons fingering silky merino that arrived yesterday made it worse (I’m not that into two of the colors). So! It’s time to do something about that, and that means destashing.

I’ve never destashed before, so I’m not really sure how this goes, but I’ve listed things that I’m happy to part with here in Ravelry. (The Sundara FSM will be up there once I get good pictures of it.) Some of the yarn is stuff one can buy in stores, some has been discontinued, some is festival-only. All is available for roughly 10% off of retail. All has been stored in ziploc bags in a pet-free, smoke-free home.

Vote.

May you have all treats and no tricks.

On the contrary, he seems plenty comfortable in there and I may well have to waddle like a manatee through a few more weeks.

There are worse things than a healthy-but-tardy baby, and we’ve been dealing with some of them, but I hope life will return to something vaguely resembling normalcy soon. Until then I hope you’re all well!

My yarn is almost gone. After compulsive checking of the scale, I figure I can get through the current repeat and end on the appropriate row with a mere 2 grams left over. Woot! Fast progress (and the realization that I’m about to lose my blocking wires and surface for a few weeks) are spurring me on. I’m trying to complete the stole before leaving for Maine, and pushing off socks until after it’s finished. I think I can even finish the knitting tonight, although I may try the grafting tomorrow during daylight.

We all know that socks make the best travel knitting, and in my blog hiatus/move-in frenzy I’m hoping for a few pairs. Despite extremely tempting temptation,

I decided to stick with my original plan and knit the Rivendell socks in Sundara sock yarn.

The color is “glacier”, and I think it will be a perfect match for Rivendell. Being a huge Tolkein nerd from way back, I associate Rivendell more with the river itself than the autumnal hues that Peter Jackson chose. (Although don’t get me wrong, I love his translation to screen!) After that, I’m hoping to move on to the other Seasons Club sock yarn, mossy in particular. Tiennie’s beautiful Hedgerows really reminded me how much I love this color. The jury is still out on a pattern, though. Wouldn’t want to get too decisive.

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I probably could have finished the stole, if I hadn’t spent so much of my time focused on food. It’s an occupational hazard of the whole 7-months-pregnant thing, I suppose.

I love making fresh pasta. (This stuff was destined for my favorite tomato-cream sauce.)

I guess I don’t talk about it much here, but I actually love pretty much every kind of dough out there. Especially pie crust. I love pie crust so much that I can’t bear to throw scraps away, and bake them in the toaster oven sprinkled with cinnamon sugar instead.

The next few weeks will be pretty crazy for me, so in case I don’t make it back here until mid-June, here’s wishing you lots of yummy strawberry-rhubarb tarts!