Let's have a conversation about ease. Ease is something that still gets me, even after a decade of knitting. Probably because I don't knit sweaters for myself very often, and with kids, it's easy to pick a size and go with it. With my 2 being the ages they are, if a sweater is too big or small for one, it'll fit the other.
Ease describes how loose or tight a garment is on your body. If the garment has POSITIVE ease, it's loose. If it has NEGATIVE ease, it's skin tight. If it has ZERO ease, it fits without being stretched.
Remember my beautiful Heavenly sweater? The one that was finished except for the sleeves? It's in the frog pond. If you look at the pattern photo, it is shown to be a loose fitting garment. If you check the sizing, it has positive ease built into it. It is designed to be a loose, comfortable sweater. I don't wear loose clothing. I'm a big girl, and loose, baggy clothing just makes me look bigger. I don't wear skin tight pinup style clothes, but I do wear my clothes fitted to my body. So I will literally NEVER wear a sweater with 4 inches of positive ease.
Let this be a lesson to you! BELIEVE the designer when he/she says a garment will have X amount of ease, and look at the designer's photos, because the designer's garment will fit the model the way the designer intended the garment to fit. The designer wants to show the garment off to its very best, you know? Then think about how YOU wear YOUR clothing. Some women prefer to wear looser, non-restrictive clothing. Some women prefer clothing to take after boa constrictors. I don't like having to squeeze into my clothing, but neither do I like to feel like I'm swimming in anything other than a body of water. I invariably get "Have you lost weight?" comments when I wear clothing that is more fitted - even if I haven't actually lost anything. If the designer's photos show a sweater stretched across the model's chest, and you like your clothing to have movement in it - knit the next size up. (Or 2.) If you like your clothing to be snug, knit the next size down.
I did have a couple options with Heavenly. I could have sucked it up and finished it. I have a month's worth of knitting into it, after all. But I know I would NEVER wear it, and if I did wear it, I wouldn't feel proud of it, I wouldn't feel like it looked good on me. I could give it to someone else - my mom is the same size as me, but prefers to wear looser clothing for ease of movement, and the blue is a shade that would be a fabulous color on her.
But, the bottom line is, I really wanted THIS sweater. THIS shade of blue, in a plain design that would let the yarn sing, even though it's inexpensive acrylic. THIS shade of blue is a fantastic color on me, too; that's why I picked it. So - I unwove (is that a word?) the end from the bind off, and I am reknitting it straight from the finished sweater, into the smaller size, and I'm leaving a giant NOTE TO SELF - YOU LIKE ZERO EASE IN YOUR CLOTHING.
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