Today’s tip is from Kirsten Hipsky, designer for Valley Yarns. She has some great suggestions for selecting the perfect size to make for your next garment. 

To help figure out which size to make, I recommend measuring around your chest at its widest and choosing the closest size to that measurement, making the larger one if you’re between sizes.

Another helpful exercise is to measure the bodies of your current favorite sweaters or sweatshirts just underneath the sleeves. This will help you see ahead of time which size sweaters you like wearing the most.

We try to design all of our Valley Yarns sweaters so that they could be worn with zero inches of ease. That is, a person with a 40″ chest should be able to wear the 40″ finished chest measurement sweater without the sleeves or neck being too tight. But if you prefer looser sweaters, you could easily make a larger size.

Most of the sweaters could also be worn with a couple inches of negative ease if you like tight-fitting sweaters. The Kohl Lace Pullover, for example, has a stretchy, lacy stitch pattern and a roomy, straight sleeve that could probably be worn with up to 4″ of negative ease. But I would measure your current sweaters first to make sure that’s what you would like.

The sweater shown in the picture is Valley Yarns 464 Bittersweet Pullover knit in Valley Yarns Sheffield.

Ysolda Teague’s book Little Red in the City offers fantastic tips on knitting, including how to get the perfect fit for a woman. If you’re going to spend the countless hours it takes to make a fitted garment, you want to make sure it really does fit in the end! On the right, you’ll see just where to put the tape measure for most of your measurements. You’ll get the most accurate information if you’re wearing the same undergarments you’ll wear under your knitted project, and it’s absolutely necessary to have a friend help you. You can’t get accurate measurements if you’re trying to do them yourself!

Where to measure from top to bottom:

High Bust
Bust
Under Bust
Waist
High Hip
Low Hip
Upper Arm
Wrist

You also want to measure: straight between your shoulder bones, across your back, your back neck to waist, waist to hem, and measure your arm for your sleeve length starting at your shoulder and measuring down to your wrist. You can check our Ysolda’s book, Little Red in the City for a really in depth explanation and schematics.