Enhance Your Shape With Type Of Sweater

With a few helpful hints, you can make sweaters that are not only beautiful, but also enhance your figure. When you knit or crochet a sweater, you don’t have the luxury of trying the garment on before it’s completed. Once it’s finished, it’s too late to make drastic changes. It is therefore better to think about a few design elements before you make the sweater.

As we all know, everyone has a different figure type. To evaluate your sweater-making decisions, know your best qualities and those you’d like to camouflage. You can do this by trying on a few purchased sweaters or ones that you have made in the past. The key areas of fit are the shoulders, bust, waist and hip.

Because of nature’s genetic plan, many women fall into the “narrower shoulders than hips” category. There are some fairly easy ways to disguise an ample hip area.

One of the essential rules to remember in any fit discussion is that horizontal lines tend to widen. The lower edge of your sweater is the most important horizontal line in the garment; be very careful where you place this line. It makes sense that you don’t want to place the lower edge line at your widest point, which is often your hip area. Either have your sweater come below or above the widest point. If you have a full waist or “tummy,” cropped sweaters would not be an ideal choice for you. The length of your sweater is very important for figure flattery.

In this week’s featured sweater, we feature one of the most flattering design features for the hipline: slits on each side of the sweater. The side slits keep the sweater from pulling in at the hip. Side slits can be as short as 1 to 2 inches or as long 5 to 6 inches. Making these slits longer than 6 inches may alter the wearability of the garment.

Don’t forget to think about your ribbing. This is an important way to keep your sweater from hugging the hip or waist. In general, the longer the ribbing, the more it pulls in, so shortening the depth of the rib keeps it straighter. If it is too short, you may find that it will flip up. The minimum length would be at least an inch.

If your pattern suggests that you make your ribbing on two needle or hook sizes smaller than the one used for the body, try using one size smaller instead.

Alterations such as these are easy and will add to your wearing enjoyment. In upcoming columns, we’ll talk about other ways to make better-fitting sweaters.

Our highly textured knit pullover will take you through spring in fine style. It’s worked with a worsted-weight acrylic yarn in a gauge of 6 stitches to the inch, and the finished chest measurements are 42, 46 or 50 inches.

MEMO: To obtain directions for making the Textured Pullover, send your request for Leaflet No. 032496 with $2 and a long, stamped, self-addressed envelope to: The NeedleWorks, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 419148, Kansas City, MO 64141. Or you may order Kit No. 032496 by sending a check or money order for $37.95 to The NeedleWorks at the same address. Kit price includes shipping charges, full instructions and worsted-weight acrylic yarn in your choice of deep coral or light teal. For kit orders only, you may call 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays to (800) 873-9537.