Cabin Fever Sisters Knit

I have been giving a lot of thought to fitting the raglan to the plus sized figure. I measured several of the women at our knitting guild meeting last night. Why can't there be a standard body for each size ?!!! OK, I'm over it.

I've been talking to different people for the last 2 years, gathering information and peeves about plus size sweaters. One pet peeve was right on the money. Why do plus size sweaters make the front and back of the sweater the same width? Most of us carry more weight on the front than the back. I'm not discounting the back carriage but that's further down the sweater so I don't have to consider it yet. It makes sense, the Front of a plus size garment could be wider than the back.


I am currently knitting some top downs by other people and making this change when I separate for my sleeves, making the Front wider than the Back. I did this on the Liesl by working across the number of stitches for the Front, one size up from my size, put the sleeves on spare yarn, worked the number of stitches for the Back, one size smaller than mine, put the second sleeve on spare yarn, and worked the Front, again one size bigger. It worked out perfectly. (I did check all the numbers first on my calculator to make sure it worked with the number of stitches I had on my needle.)

It's really difficult, for me anyway, to anticipate everything that might ensue from one decision until I act on it. Problems which I didn't think of crop up. You may have worked this out already but making the Front bigger means that the fabric above my bust line is also wider. I don't need extra material across my upper chest. In this pattern it won't matter because the lace will compensate but it's definitely a consideration. We need the extra material at the beginning of our bust and below, not above.


Food for thought. Any ideas?
I have a solution which I have been working on. It should work, I think, maybe.
-Deb