Sizes: A Manifesto in Parts

This is the first in what I'm hoping will be an ongoing discussion about sizes and knitwear patterns.

I love designing knitwear. You may know this about me. But, I'm also a dedicated and strident feminist (she says partially tongue-in-cheek)¹.


If you'll indulge me: it's part of my "mission" to emphasize the importance of size/shape differences between us all. That's the confluence of my design and feminism.

We are all different sizes. YES! All different. No value should be attached to one over any other; we all know, though, that value is culturally assigned to one body type (which fascinatingly changes over time). But, let's move forward with this discussion assuming this is true: all body types are valid, not one is "wrong".

This is what I believe, and what I hope you all believe as well.

All that is to say:

Look at this.

Image on left © Michelle of My So-Called Handmade Life

See more great pics of her finished Lady Bat here.
Now, here's the value in my placing these two images side-by-side for you:

On the left we see a teenaged woman wearing a Lady Bat size XS in grey. She is 5'11" tall.
On the right, we see a 30-year-old me wearing a Lady Bat size XS in grey. I am 5'1" tall.

The 10" of difference in our height has little-to-no effect on this particular design.
A large part of this is because the piece is meant to drape, which I think you can see quite well in both photos.

When I designed Lady Bat I used the CYC standards (which are the standards, generally, for knitwear design), relying on the hip and bust measurements to determine my size range.

Lady Bat, like most of my sized garment patterns, has a large size range.

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¹This book, while not reflecting my personal feminism precisely, is a funny and energizing read. Linked here because she refers to herself as a "strident feminist".