Foreword from One Wild Designs

We met Whitney Swinimer on Instagram, where her account @knittedbywhitney serves as an inspiration and a resource for knitters, especially plus sized knitters. Earlier this summer, we were following Whitney’s journey with a tank she knit that didn’t work well in her size. We hear from a lot of knitters in the smallest and largest sizes who run into similar issues, and those issues are really obvious in tanks. Tank tops need lots of attention to the armhole shaping for a proper fit, if the depth and width of the armhole aren’t right for your body, it will be noticeable.

At One Wild, our grading processes are always evolving. Stories like Whitney’s, although she was working with another designer’s pattern, help to shape the refinements we make to the fit of our garments. We wanted to hear more from Whitney, and we knew you’d benefit from hearing how she saved this project as well. Thank you, Whitney, for continuing to be a thought leader in the size-inclusion movement and for sharing with us so generously.

Trust the process or trust your gut? Armhole sizing for plus size bodies

Should I trust the process or trust my gut? That’s a question I had to ask myself on a recent project. Spoiler alert: I should have trusted my gut. 

I’m an experienced knitter, but I don’t know everything. If I’m making a new-to-me pattern, I’m inclined to trust the process. I choose size inclusive patterns (graded to at least a 60” bust), so I trust the designer to have done the work to ensure the pattern fits all sizes. But what if they didn’t do that work? What if they have the required measurements to be inclusive, but their grading isn’t inclusive at all?

The Pattern Search

I look at a lot of patterns. I’m on Ravelry almost daily. Partly because I just love the thrill of the hunt for patterns, but also because I’m often putting together a new pattern roundup video for my YouTube channel. This time I was on a hunt for a tank top pattern similar in style to a store-bought one I have. I had recently purchased some rayon yarn and thought it would be perfect for a summer tank.

I found a top-down stockinette tank top with a high ribbed neckline and ribbed armholes. The pattern matched my gauge, was intended to have negative ease, and of course, was size-inclusive. The designer was someone I was familiar with, but I hadn’t knit one of their patterns before. I wasn’t worried. They had dozens of other garment patterns with inclusive size ranges, including other tank top patterns I was eager to try after knitting this one.

The styling of the pattern sample matched the vibe I was hoping to achieve with my own version – cool summer chic. I could tell this would be a wardrobe staple that would look equally stylish paired with my shorts and pants or tucked into my high-waisted skirts. The classic style of the tank meant it could be dressed up or down. I could style it with an open button-down for a Chessy from The Parent Trap vibe or gussy it up with a flowy skirt and espadrilles for a French Riviera vibe.

Before purchasing, I took a look at the projects on Ravelry, something I do every time I want to buy a pattern. Disappointingly, there weren’t any examples of the tank top on plus-sized makers. That’s not a dealbreaker for me because I’ve had success in the past with patterns where I’m the first plus-sized maker to knit the pattern (or at least the first to share photos). But I noticed something else this time: roughly half of the projects had large armholes and half had well-fitted ones.

I didn’t think too much of it at the time… I chalked it up to different yarn choices causing different drapes among the projects. A few projects had good notes, one or two of which mentioned the size feeling a bit big, but they seemed like outliers. Besides, I was planning to make a size that would give me negative ease. If I ended up with neutral or slight positive ease, I would be okay with that too.

The Cracks Start to Show

Getting started with a knitting pattern is like starting a test: you want to read the whole thing before you start. There are certain elements to a pattern that I look for that tell me if I’m going to get a really good fit: short rows, bust darts, and compound increases as a few examples. These aren’t required, but they certainly help achieve the best fit possible, especially for a plus-sized body.

Reading through the pattern, I was a little surprised that the armhole shaping didn’t have compound increases – a faster rate of increasing that will get the width you need without excess length. In fact, I was so caught off guard by this omission that when I did the armhole increases on the back panel, I did compound increases on autopilot and had to go back and reknit the panel to match the pattern instructions.

I wish I had stayed on autopilot and done compound increases for both front and back panels. But I was trusting the process of someone I thought was a size-inclusive designer and I wanted to follow their instructions. I followed those instructions until I reached the point where I joined my front and back panels in the round for the body. This is where I started to realize I had been led astray by a badly graded design.

Don’t Cry, Don’t Cry, Don’t Cry, Don’t Cry

The best part about a top-down pattern is that you can try it on as you go and make adjustments early on in the process. You’re getting the parts of the pattern that are the trickiest to fit done first and you can catch any mistakes early on and fix them quickly. This is exactly what I had to do once I joined my tank in the round. 

For almost every top down pattern I have done, when joining front and back panels together (or when splitting a raglan into the body and sleeves), the pattern will tell you to add extra stitches for the underarm. These stitches are meant to round out the armhole and give you the right number of stitches you need for the body. Depending on the pattern’s gauge, this number of stitches can vary wildly. But once you cast those stitches on and join your body in the round, you get your first look at how the pattern will fit. 

Most of the time, this is a joyful experience because the hardest parts of the pattern are behind you and the rest is smooth sailing. You get to try on your piece and get a proper look at how it will fit, and seeing that usually energizes you to keep going and get the pattern finished. But that’s not what my experience was like. 

As I put my tank top over my head and it hung on my body, I was instantly filled with a sense of dread. I knew right away that it wasn’t right. The armholes were too big. Not just slightly too big. Clownishly big. The diameter of the armhole looked big enough to fit my waist, not my arm!

At this point, I had one thing going through my head: don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry. I was The Rock in Jumanji trying to hold myself together.

Fix It Or Frog It?

I felt so many emotions: sadness, disappointment, frustration, anger. But mostly I just felt cheated. This pattern had tricked me into thinking it would fit me because the size range was inclusive. The grading determined that was a lie. Instead of a fitted tank top I could wear with my skirts, I had a muscle tank that would be popular among gym bros. Not the look I was going for. 

So what now? I had two options: fix it or frog it. I had already spent so much time on this tank, and I loved the yarn, so I decided I wanted to try and fix it. After sharing my dilemma on Instagram, I received lots of wonderful suggestions of how to fix the armhole, but one option stood out to me. Go back and rejoin the back and front panels without adding any extra stitches. 

That could work. In fact, I had another recent fit experience that told me it would work. A few months before making this tank top, I had started a top down raglan sweater that had armholes that were too small, and one of the culprits was not enough underarm stitches. It was worth a shot to try and fix this oversized armhole by doing the opposite and removing those extra stitches. 

So I went back and redid the join without adding any extra stitches. In fact, I took away a couple stitches with my joining method: I passed the last stitch of each panel over the first stitch of the other one to give a really snug join. Taking away the underarm stitches made a difference to the size of the armhole, but it wasn’t quite as small as I needed it to be for comfort.

Finishing Touches

I had one more trick up my sleeve to fix the armhole without having to go further back in the pattern and make more drastic changes: the ribbing. Most patterns give you a certain pickup rate to follow, most commonly picking up two stitches for every three, but I knew I needed to do my pickup rate differently to further cinch the armhole. 

I’m not the best at math, nor did I feel like doing a lot of calculations, so I decided on a really easy pickup rate: I would pick up every second stitch. I knew for sure that this would cinch in the armhole, but it was a bit of a gamble because it could have cinched it too much. Luckily, it was the perfect fit I was looking for. The armholes looked fitted to my size, but were still roomy enough to be comfortable. I also used this same pickup rate to fix the neckline, which was too wide when following the pattern’s instructions and the straps were hanging over my shoulders. Surprise, surprise. 

Unfortunately, the tank top is still not perfect. My armholes grew again with blocking despite my best efforts. I checked my gauge when I made my swatch, but the weight of the tank top is a lot heavier than the weight of my 4” x 4” swatch, and that weight pulls the tank down. 

My neckline is also a problem. Cinching in the neckline with my every second stitch pickup rate fixed the problem of it being too wide, but because there aren’t any short rows in the back, the front for the neckline creeps upwards until it hits my throat and feels like it’s choking me, which is a big sensory issue for me. 

In this case though, “done” was better than “perfect.” It was a frustrating experience making this tank top, but I was determined to make it work because I loved the yarn. I was lucky that my modifications resulted in saving this pattern and giving me a wearable top, even if it has some serious flaws. But those flaws haven’t prevented me from wearing the tank, I just constantly adjust the neckline and wear a nude bra that shows when I lift my arms. I’m not going to lie though: frogging is still tempting. My modifications didn’t truly give me the fit I wanted with this pattern, they just made sure I wasn’t showing a crazy amount of side boob.

Lessons Learned

So is there any way I could have saved myself the trouble this pattern caused me? Yes and no. I could have stopped myself when I read through the pattern and didn’t see any of the typical shaping methods I know give me a good fit. But could I have known before purchasing the pattern? It depends on the information provided in the pattern listing. 

Some designers are very thorough in their pattern listings. They include information such as measurements for each size, estimated yardages, a list of techniques used in the pattern, the type of construction, and if we’re lucky, the holy grail: a schematic. 

A schematic is a drawing or photo of the finished garment with a list of measurements for each part of the pattern, most often bust circumference and length, but also sleeve length and wrist circumference, waist and hip circumferences, and neckline and armhole depths. This is the most useful piece of information that can be included in a pattern listing, but it’s a rare find. 

A schematic shows that the designer has taken into consideration how the garment will fit all over the body and they have (hopefully) done the work to make sure all of those parts of the garment will fit as intended. My favourite size inclusive designers almost always share pattern schematics. The tank top pattern I chose to make? It did not.

I always pose a question to myself when showing off a finished item in my podcast: will I make this pattern again? This one is a resounding no! Sadly, I don’t think I could have made this pattern work for me by making different choices, I think the bad grading was going to let me down no matter what. So I’m exploring different tank top patterns for current and future cast-ons – some that use a similar construction to this pattern and some that don’t.

Are Oversized Armholes for Plus Sizes An Anomaly? 

There are nearly 16,000 sleeveless top patterns on Ravelry. If you think that’s a lot, compare it to the over 110,000 sweater patterns – not including cardigans. Sleeveless tops can present more challenges than a sweater because there’s no hiding a badly fitting armhole. Some designers won’t even grade tank tops beyond certain sizes because it’s so challenging to get the right armhole fit on a plus sized body. 

But that doesn’t mean a designer shouldn’t grade to larger sizes. It just means they need to do the right research and testing to make sure their pattern fits all sizes properly. The most important thing to remember with plus sized bodies is that not all parts of our bodies increase in size at the same rate as our busts. Even though my bust is significantly larger, my neck is not, nor are my wrists, or my shoulders, etc. As a pattern goes up in bust size, it doesn’t need to increase the size of a neckline or an armhole at the same rate as the bust sizing. And no, just because we are plus sized, does not mean we are six feet tall.

I have hope for other tank top patterns that I’ve come across in my searches. I’ve been knitting for almost ten years and in that time I’ve seen a really wonderful shift of attitude towards size inclusivity in knitting patterns. There are some amazing size-inclusive designers out there doing the work, using expansive sizing resources, having their patterns properly tech edited, getting feedback from plus-sized testers, and more.

There will always be some designers who don’t put in the work, but that just shows me what their priorities are, and if they don’t want to prioritize making their designs fit all of their sizes, then I don’t want to buy their patterns. I don’t want to be a designer’s afterthought, I want to be just as important as a straight-sized knitter who might buy their pattern. Because size inclusivity isn’t just about helping a few larger-sized knitters get a good fit, it’s about helping everyone get the best fit.

Technical notes from Jen & Bess

After reading about Whitney's experience, we wanted to provide some thoughts from the spreadsheet side of things. Whether you're a designer looking to improve your size-inclusive grading skills or you're maker hoping to get a great fit, here's what we look for and do with our own projects:

Armhole width

Generally speaking, we are looking for width under the arm that more or less matches the width of the underarm under the body. We aim for approximately 1.75" - 4.25" for the total width of the cast-on (or, if you're working bottom up, the initial cast-on).

Armhole shaping

Our shoulders don't change much as we get larger, but our chest circumference does. That means that larger sizes have to eliminate more stitches more quickly. This can be done well with a few stepped bind-off or cast-on rows at the bottom of the armhole, and then a series of shaping rows that are more rapid at the bottom of the underarm and more spaced out as they approach the middle of the underarm. Generally, we're aiming for a "J" shape. All of the shaping for the underarm should be done in the bottom 1/3 of the underarm.

Shoulder slope

We aren't rectangles! In fact, our shoulders are triangles - they slope from the outer shoulder up to our inner neck. When working on a tank top, vest, drop-shoulder, or set-in sleeve (basically anything but a raglan or yoke), choose patterns that have angled shoulders. Those can be worked either with short rows or with a series of bind-offs.

Check the armhole depth

Armhole depth is a body measurement that varies substantially based on not only height, but also build type. And as Whitney has pointed out, not every pattern grader is savvy in fitting all sizes. As a maker, consider measuring your armhole depth and comparing it to the pattern to see where the bottom of the armhole will land on your body, and adjust as needed. In a set-in sleeve, we typically look for approximately 1" of ease under the arm. In those garments, the sleeve meets the underarm and makes an acute angle, heading away from the body. For tank tops or vests that have ribbing that should lie flat along the body, we might expect to see the armhole get a bit deeper. For more information on this critical fit measurement for tank tops, you can read this article.