Melissa Leapman - Knitting the Perfect Fit: Essential Fully Fashioned Shaping Techniques for Designer Results

Copyright 2012 by Melissa Leapman
Photographs copyright 2012 by Potter Craft

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Potter Craft, an imprint
of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random
House, Inc., New York.
www.pottercraft.com
www.crownpublishing.com

POTTER CRAFT and colophon is a registered trademark
of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leapman, Melissa.
Knitting the perfect fit / by Melissa Leapman.1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Knitting. 2. Tailoring (Womens) I. Title.
TT825.L388176 2012
746.432dc23 2011042936

eISBN: 978-0-307-96572-1

Photographs by Heather Weston
Technical illustrations by Joni Coniglio
Charts and schematic illustrations by Melissa Leapman
Technical editing by Charlotte Quiggle

Thanks to the Craft Yarn Council of America
(www.yarnstandards.com) for its Standard Yarn
Weight system chart.

v3.1

Special thanks go to the following knitters for their help testing the patterns and creating the samples for this project: Mink Barrett, Diane Bloomer, Patricia Bluestein, Didi Bottini, Meg Croft, Marie Duquette, Lynn Gates, Jessy Henderson, Susan Hope, Tom Jensen, Cheryl Keeley, Robin May, Joan Murphy, Candace Musmeci, Holly Neiding, Dawn Penny, Judy Seip, and Angie Tzoumakas.

I am grateful to Cascade Yarn Company for providing all the yarn used in the Designer Workshops. With great stitch definition and a million and one colors, their Cascade 220 is a pleasure to design with!

Once again, Ive been fortunate to surround myself with the best folks in the business: Thank you, Charlotte Quiggle, for all you do for the team. Ive enjoyed our daily lunches immensely! And to Joni Coniglio: I am one very lucky author to have been able to work with you again. Im sure my readers will gladly agree.

Its all in the details! The use of what designers call fully fashioned shaping marks the difference between an ordinary ho-hum sweater and an undeniably spectacular fashion garment. Using mirrored increases and decreasesslanting certain stitches toward the left or the right to create design details can easily give a garment a couture touch. It is the construction difference between an $80 J.Crew cashmere V-neck sweater and the one that sells for $200 in the same catalog. Though both are knitted out of the same soft yarn, the less expensive sweater is usually made by assembling front, back, or sleeve pieces cut from huge bolts of machine-knit fabric and then sewn with a serger, while the more expensive sweater is created with hand-manipulated, machine-made knitting stitches.

Many handknitters already use shaping details in their garments: decreases for armholes, necklines, or sleeve caps and increases for sleeves. We dont cut our pieces into shape, we knit them into shape! But most knitters do not understand how shaping works or how to use simple increases and decreases to add visual interest to their garments. Ive taught these techniques to hundreds of knitters, and during my workshop they begin to look at their knitting in a whole new way. I still remember that exciting aha! moment when a student in one of my classes worked her first fully fashioned V neckline a few years ago. Its so neat and perfect, she proudly proclaimed. In these pages we will explore simple fully fashioned techniques and how to apply them to create interesting designer elements and flattering shaping details in garments for any body shape. You will learn that just adding a few extra details can take any project to an entirely new level of sophistication.

of this book is a refresher course on all the basics any knitter will need to master, from different increase and decrease methods, to Knitting Charts 101, and the dos and donts of figure flattery. Chapter 2 illustrates simple ways to incorporate fully fashioned shaping in stockinette garments. Included are four wearableand knittable!projects to get your needles clicking as you practice these basic shaping techniques. Chapter 3 provides ways of using fully fashioned shaping for designer details such as decorative raglan seams and figure-flattering vertical lines. Many of the projects include incorporated neckbands and armbands to make the finishing of the garment faster and easier. Chapter 4 delves into exciting ways to use strategically placed increases and decreases to create figure-flattering sweaters. Some of the projects in this section even use fully fashioned details to fool the eye and create the illusion of shape: You dont have to have a perfect hourglass shape to look great!

Throughout the book, youll discover little body shape icons that will direct you to garments that are specifically designed for your individual figure type. Diagonal lines will draw attention to certain sections of the garmentand of your body. If youre going to take the timeand spend the moneyto make custom garments, you might as well knit flattering ones!

Youll have fun experimenting with fully fashioned designer detailsand using your knitting prowess to create knockout pieces that fit and flatter. Lets get started.

No matter your skill level, superbly knit and figure-flattering garments can be made by anyone. If youre going to spend your free time (not to mention your precious yarn budget!) to create a sweater, the result ought to be as beautiful on you as possible. In this chapter, youll learn the ins and outs of increases, decreases, knitting charts, and the simple abbreviations youll encounter throughout the book.