Knitting Advice Nr. 7: Embrace your negativity (wearability matters)

When reading a (good) knitting pattern, you will come across terms like “designed with a 2 inches positive ease” or “designed with a 5 % negative ease. What does this mean ? A tight fitting pattern is created by making a knit that is smaller than your body, so that it will stretch onto your body, creating this tight fitting look. This is called “negative ease”. A Loose fit is creating by creating a knit that is larger than your body, aka “positive ease”.

Positive ease : the knitted garments measurements > your body’s measurements
Negative ease : your body’s measurements > the knitted garments measurements

I use to have trouble remembering which was which until I created this little motto :

Negative ease for body parts you feel positive about, positive ease for body parts you feel rather negative about.

Some knitwear designers don’t specifiy whether or not their pattern has been designed with positive or negative ease. Ravelry is your friend here. Type in the name of your design and there are fair chances it will be there. Make sure to be on the page of the design that the knitwear designer published themselves. Looking at the photos there should help you understand how tight or loose the fit is. Looking at how the pattern looks on different body types should help you figure out how the pattern is likely to look on you and whether or not you want it to have negative or positive ease. When knitters modify a pattern, it is often the amount of ease that they adjust to their own likings. So check out these projects notes to find out if they have modified the pattern or not.

There’s quite a bit of activism around “body positivity” and I appreciate that. Knitting is a great way of embracing the shape of our bodies and – let’s be honest here, ladies and gentlemen – show off how great and sexy our bodies are. Now, there’s the activism, the ideology and there’s….how we actually feel about our bodies. Body insecurities are widespread. So when I am saying “embrace your negativity”, I am being contentious purposefully. People are free to wear whatever they feel like and in my opinion, everyone has the right to feel positive or negative about their own body. Because, well, it’s their own body. Knitting is a time-consuming craft, and it’s not cheap either. Which of your clothes are just hanging in your closet and which clothes are you actually wearing ? Doesn’t it make more sense to knit clothes that are similar to the ones you actually like wearing ?

My dream self would go full vintage, the 40s and 50s in particular. It’s my preferred esthetics, it love the silhouette, it looks good on me , I like the close fitted cropped tops, high waist jeans are the (only) ones that fit me, etc. But….and that’s a big but, amongst my homemade items, I constantly wear an old, pilled, 100% acrylic sweater, a sweater that has V-neck, has raglan sleeves, isn’t cropped and has positive ease. (The weird thing is that I still get compliments about this sweater, maybe because it fits me well, maybe because it’s a gorgeous red). What I wear and what my dream self wears don’t match that well!

So, what about my dream self ? It’s still there, and in my knitting too. But I am wearing my knits more often as I am letting my “true self” have a say from time to time. I allow my winter sweaters to have some positive ease and I don’t make them cropped either. For my summer tops, I still go for tight fitting, cropped, negative ease patterns. And…I wear them with jeans. Yes, these tops looks extra good with a skirt and I do wear them with skirts on special occasions. But apart from these special occasions, I feel much more at ease wearing these with a pair of jeans or a pair of casual pants. Is this the same for you ? Does your dream self wear stuff you don’t actually wear ?

I have no opinion on what people “should” wear. This post is about introducing you to the notions of positive and negative ease and what is implies in terms of wearability. Now, let’s digg a little further into that. There’s several things I’d like to share with you on this topic.
How revealing of your body shape a pattern knitted with negative ease depends on the percentage of negative ease, but also on how thin the fabric is (the thinner the more revealing) as well as the stitch pattern. When used on its own and for large pieces, like a skirt or a dress, any kind of ribbing will be very revealing (up to the point of showing any skin irregularity, grease lumps included if the fabric is thin). Colourwork made of intarsia is more drapy and clingy than any stranded colour work will ever be.
In the other direction, when a garment is described as being “oversize”, take a close look to the schematics provided and compare them to those of a knit you like. Take an extra close look if you are plus size, as unfortunately, this is where beginner knitwear designers often get confused: they start adding way too much ease for their larger sizes. If the design says their pattern has been “tech edited” (i.e their maths was controlled by someone who actually knows what the grading should look like), you can skip this step. Often, knitwear designers don’t specify whether or not they had their pattern tech edited or not. Be sure to check the neck opening, its width should be very close to that of a medium size. Keep in mind that our frame stays the same as we put on weight.
To my knowledge, the older the pattern, the less likely it is that any mention of positive or negative will be mentioned. You just have the provided pictures to go with and that’s when Ravely comes in very handily as some very old patterns have been knitted and documented on Ravelry. One thing you need to remember is that knitwear follows fashion. In the 1980s, the general fit was pretty loose whereas in the 1940s and 1950s, that’s pretty much where it was at its most clinging. There’s quite a few videos on youtube about the evolution of fashion (knitwear included). If you are interested in older patterns, these videos are a good starting point.

Have fun and enjoy your knits !