Back in January, I made a New Year's resolution (which I rarely do) that, this year, I was going to make a sweater that fit and that is flattering. The problem has never been with my technical knitting capabilities, but more with knowing what adjustments to make so that it fits my body, and not some average person that happens to have the same bust size as me.

As part of that quest, back in May I spent an evening at Nancy's house doing some Bodymapping.To do this, you need some 1×1 gingham fabric, some markers, pins, and a friend. The technique is well explained in the book. It goes something like this:

You cut a hole out for your head, then put it on.

Your friend pins the fabric so that the garment fits you, and marks key points.

Then you take the fabric off, and transfer the markings onto graph paper. Voila, you have a nice graphical representation of your measurements and curves.

So, armed with information on my measurements, I waited for the right project to strike. As is often the case with me, the yarn came first. I bought some Phildar Bam'bou yarn in August, and decided to make the flat panel version of the Ribby Shell. I made some modifications:

• My gauge was different, so I re-calculated the numbers to get the number of stitches I needed to cast on, and how many I needed for the side ribs, and front and back panels.

• I added in bust darts.

• I switched the left-slanting and right-slanting decreases along the v-neck (I liked the look of it better).

• I calculated the armhole and neck shaping. One problem I frequently encounter is that neck openings are too wide for me. I'm fairly narrow across the shoulders (I'm pear-shaped). So I calculated what I needed to do to get a neck opening and shoulder width that will fit me better.

• I added an extra inch to the top back. I have a bit of a curved back, and my measurements reveal that the distance from my shoulder to my armpit is a full inch longer in the back than the front. So I added in this inch of fabric, so that the shoulder would actually sit on the shoulder (which is rare for me in most garments). For an item with sleeves, I will accomplish this using short rows, but since the shell has no sleeves to worry about matching, I just added an extra inch.

I finished the knitting when I was in Paris. I sewed the shoulders together, tried it on, and IT FIT! Perfectly. Like it was made for me. I was so excited to have finally produced a fitted item that actually fit.

When I got home, I finished weaving in the ends. I blocked it, and tried it on again. It fit beautifully. It hugged my body perfectly. The armholes were just right. The shoulder seams sat perfectly on my shoulders. The neck opening was exactly the right width. The shoulders were exactly the width I wanted.

I proudly wore it to work the next day.

As the day wore on, the top stretched and stretched. I took this picture at lunchtime, and even by then the armholes had grown some. By the end of the day, the armhole had lengthened so that my bra was showing, and the ribbing had stretched out and lost its bounce. Fortunately, I had worn a jacket over it. It is now too big. It looks baggy and shapeless, and the armholes are too deep.

I haven't touched it since. I have to decide what to do with it. To see if there is some way to salvage it. The problem is not with the pattern (which I highly recommend) or with my calculations, but with the yarn. I think it just wasn't a good yarn choice.

But I'm not deterred. I now know I CAN make something to fit. I just need to use a yarn that is not going to stretch out like that. I already have my next sweater on the needles. I am still determined to make a sweater that fits and is flattering before the year is up.

I borrowed Lace Style from the library, and I as I was leafing through, this pattern caught my eye:

I decided immediately that I must make it. I have a cone of a wool/silk/cotton/rayon from School Products that I bought via the now defunct Destash blog back in April, that I had just been waiting for the right project for. This was it.

Notice something about the picture though? See how the model is sitting with her shoulders shrugged? Well, there's a reason for that, which I noticed when I started reviewing the pattern. The neck opening is 9 3/4" wide. That is way too wide for me, and apparently, it is also too wide for the model.

No problem. My yarn knits up to a tighter gauge than the pattern calls for, so I knit up the lacy inset, blocked it, and measured it.

8" wide at the top. Much better. So I'll make the sweater according to my measurements, and graph out the neck opening (using knitting graph paper) so that the lace panel fits in. 

With the exception of the lacy panel, and the lacy sleeves, I don't really like the rest of the sweater. It's shapeless, with boring ribbing at the bottom. And it's done in pieces. I'm doing it in the round, and I haven't yet decided what to do at the bottom, so I started with a provisional cast on at the waist, and I'll figure out the bottom part last. I'm making it close-fitting, with bust darts. I'm just about ready to split it at the armpits, but here's a picture after a few inches of knitting. This shows the yarn better than the picture above.

Maybe this will be the one?