Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

For the record, I want to state that the easy part of the Forest Darkness has been the colorwork. You'll recall my challenge is the smallest size is too big for me. After more knitting and frogging and knitting and frogging, I thought I had figured things out. The instructions that come with the sweater kit have short rows as well as body and sleeve increases as you transition down the yoke towards the split for the sleeves and body. Some rounds/rows have both body and sleeve increases, and some have sleeve increases only. The short rows are turned at 5-stitch intervals, producing a gentle wedges on each side that reach from the underarm to the bust. I had already worked those instructions. I already knew they produced a sweater that was way too large for me. So I tried an alternative solution. I thought I might be able to extend the back and sleeves but not the front. The yoke is almost at my bust. I worked two inches of short rows using 2-stitch ...

When making garments that fit the human form, we sometimes talk about "ease." Ease is a measure of how much extra fabric is in a garment. For example, if a bust measurement is 36 inches, then a sweater that is exactly 36 inches around has no ease. If the sweater is 38 inches, it has 2 inches of positive ease at the bust. If the sweater is 35 inches, is has one inch of negative ease. A big, boxy, oversized sweater might have 6 or 8 inches of positive ease. This is important when you are making garments that both fit and flatter. And ease behaves differently if the fabric is woven than if it is knitted. Woven fabrics generally don't stretch if they have been cut with the grain. (Cutting on the bias is a whole different story.) Knit fabrics are different. They stretch. They move. They might even grow. This also means knit fabrics can match our shape. If the shape you have underneath is not one you want to display to the world, then this is maybe a bug rather than a featu...