A little morning rant about… bust darts. In my advice No. 20 (Knit to flatter: embrace your figure), I went into some details about how the silhouette of a sweater affects whether or not a knit is especially flattering for you. What I failed to mention is that for us large ladies with a bra cup D and above, only one look is on offer : the tent look. Aka we pay for our patterns /books just like everyone else, plus pay extra because we need more yarn and, should we simply follow the patterns, we end up with this tent, from the bustline downwards.
What 99% of contemporary patterns do is provide loads of positive ease with the assumption (hope?) that this will allow us to at least be able to get into the sweater. The extra fabric creates all sorts of unflattering and uncomfortable diagonal drag lines. Yet I am not knitting to enter a tent. I am knitting to look good. I want to be able to choose which silhouette I am going for. And for all this talk about size inclusivity (many patterns now claim to go up to size 5XL!), bust dart options are simply not included! I find this incredibly frustrating. At the very least, designers should inform their clients which bra size they are drafting for. Same for knitting books. My strong suspicion is that they are designing for a bra cup B from S to 5XL. Perfectly fine for all the B cup ladies, but at least inform me that your pattern is not meant for me!
When I cast on patterns I paid for, I find myself in the position of a test knitter turned designer. From now on, I will use AI to add bust darts to the patterns that I own. Let’s hope that will improve things and I won’t have to swatch-test everything. Whatever sweater silhouette we like, adding bust darts makes us ladies look good. On Ravelry, when I browse to see how the designs look on people like me, I sometimes notice that the photos get rarer the larger the size the people have knitted. Like they post a picture of their knit flat, lying on a bed or on a hanger. Not with them wearing the finished garment. To me, this is a tell-tale sign: the garment fits them so poorly they don’t want to be seen wearing it.
The shocking truth is that men are not taller women and women have breasts that come in different shapes and sizes. This is very inconvenient for knitting designers, I’ll agree to that. What I am not happy about is that us plus-size women with a C cup and above are treated as second-class customers whose sad destiny is to wear sweaters that don’t fit us one bit. Plus size patterns for women need to take into account… female bodies. That’s not asking for too much, is it? Meanwhile, let’s hope ChatGPT gets its maths right whilst helping me redesign for full bust adjustments.
Unsolicited Knitting Advice 