Learn How to Measure Yourself for Knits

A lot of knitters embark on their first sweater with some fear related to knitting the right size that will actually fit them and look good on their bodies.

Knitting Daily is helping to take some of the guesswork out of choosing a size with its guide to knitting measurements and how to measure yourself.

This web page will show you how to measure yourself and a favorite garment so you’ll know not only your own size but your preferred size of a garment (and the difference between the two, known as ease).

It talks about the “standard” measurements that many knitting patterns use, how to read a schematic and what that diagram tells you, and how to use all that information to determine what size of a garment to knit.

There are also a few great sweater projects shown, all of which are part of free downloads you can access with a free membership to the Knitting Daily community. They have such great resources it’s really worth it for all the emails you’ll get.

Ready to take on your first sweater project? Here are some tips from me on how to knit a sweater.

[Photo via Knitting Daily.]

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.

It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.

The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).

It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.

The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.

The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.

This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.

[Photo: Shay Johnson]

Next Pattern:

Comments

Have you read?

Leave a Reply