Better Sweaters: Understanding Ease

Imagine you see a photo of a new sweater design. On the model, the sweater looks elegantly comfortable, loose and drapey. You buy the pattern, buy the recommended yarn, and choose the size that matches your bust measurement. You make the sweater (and yes, you matched the recommended gauge). But you don’t end up with the elegantly comfortable fit you saw in the photo. You end up with a body-hugging sweater. What went wrong? Ease.

Ease is the most misunderstood aspect of fit. In this article, we’ll define ease and learn how it applies to you, enabling you to make better choices about the right sweater sizes.

What is Ease?

Ease is the space between you and your clothing. When a garment is intended to be worn with negative ease it means it will be smaller than your body. Positive ease means the garment will be bigger than your body. Zero ease means the dimensions of the sweater will be the same as your body dimensions.

There are 3 types of ease that determine how our clothing fits our bodies: fabric ease, minimum wearing ease, and design ease.

1) Fabric Ease

This is the stretch inherent in the fabrics we choose. Woven fabric usually has very little ease, but most handknit fabric can stretch 5% or more without distortion. Crochet fabric has less inherent ease than knits, but more than woven. When you see 1″ to 2″ negative ease as a fit recommendation for a knit garment, you can interpret this as “fitted, but not tight”.

2) Minimum Wearing Ease

This is the minimum amount of ease required for ease of movement and comfort. Less ease than this means the sweater may restrict your movement and breathing and may not be comfortable. The minimum wearing ease guidelines below can help guide your choices.

3) Design Ease

This is the ease added to a garment to create the drape, structure, and shape the designer envisions. Design ease is a choice. The designer chooses the silhouette they want to see. You get to choose how the sweater fits your body.

Understanding Ease in Sweater Patterns

Most contemporary sweater patterns show the finished measurement of the sweater body and include a statement about recommended ease. This is a relatively recent development in pattern writing. In older patterns, you may see sizes described as Small/Medium/Large, or “to fit bust size 32 (36, 40)”. Neither of these older styles tell you much about how big the sweater is.

In Interweave patterns, we give you the actual finished measurements of the garment, and then we tell you something like this: Pullover shown measures 46″; modeled with 5½” ease. This tells you the amount of ease needed to create the look you see in the photo.

The amount of design ease in the sweater you make is entirely up to you. You get to choose how you want the sweater to fit your body. Above are 3 different versions of my Twitch sweater design worn with 3 different amounts of positive ease, which includes both wearing ease and design ease.

Information and Inspiration are in Your Closet

You have a wealth of ease information already at your fingertips! Look at the clothing you reach for most often. Measure those pieces and compare them to your body measurements. The difference is the ease of that garment.

To explore eases that don’t exist in your current wardrobe, go shopping with your camera phone and a measuring tape. Try on clothing intended to be fitted, loose, and oversized. When you find a style, shape, or silhouette you like on your body, take a photo. Then measure the garment and take notes. Soon you will have a small library of potential new eases to try.

Putting It All Together

Now that you have a set of measurements and an understanding of ease, let’s put it together to choose a size in a pattern!

Because the size of a sweater pattern is typically based on the chest or bust measurement, you can assume the recommended ease applies only to the chest/bust. When a designer recommends 2″ inches of positive ease, add those 2″ to your upper torso measurement to get the size that will fit you as the designer intends.  My upper torso is 43″ in circumference, so the intended chest/bust size for me in this example would be 45″, or the closest size to that. As we learned in the last installment of this series, the best size for you can actually be two or three sizes blended together, so let’s see how this works with the rest of the body.

A schematic is the single most important fit tool in a sweater pattern. This is the schematic for the Passade Pullover designed by Elizabeth Whittaker from the Spring 2022 issue of Interweave Knits.

We can learn a lot just from looking at the schematic. The body is smaller at the waist (B) and appears to be the same circumference at the bust and hips (A), making the body shape an hourglass.  The sleeve schematic shows a sleeve cap, indicating a set-in sleeve. All this information is factored into my ease decisions.

Related: Understanding Crochet Schematics

The pattern tells me the pullover shown measures 35½” (which is the first size); modeled with 2″ of negative ease. I can see that the sweater looks fitted, but not tight. I prefer to avoid negative ease in my sweaters, so I’m going to plan to make this one with minimum wearing ease.

Here is How I Determine Size ME!

Be sure to look at all the sizes that might fit different parts of you to give yourself choices. With the Passade Pullover, a hybrid of sizes 4 and 5 would result in a sweater where all parts fit me well. In addition, I’ll add bust shaping to the front of the sweater to reconcile the difference between my bust and the bust of the sweater.

Here is a blank version of this chart you can use to decide which size to make on your next sweater:

With your set of body measurements and an understanding of your ease preference, choosing a sweater size becomes infinitely easier. You’re one step closer to a handknit or crocheted wardrobe you love!

This is the third article in a series on Better Sweaters! Go back to Part 1 for tips on choosing sweaters that you’ll love to wear, then check out Part 2 to learn about how to knit “Size YOU” and get that great fit. In Part 4, we talk about swatching for gauge to get the fabric you love to fit your unique size. Finally, move on to Part 4 for tips on swatching and designing from your fabric.

Originally published 8/23/2022. Updated 10/16/2023.

Kim McBrien Evans is a knitwear designer, teacher, author and indie hand dyer. Her knitwear designs are known for their ability to turn an abstract idea into a wearable reality while simultaneously fitting and complimenting a wide range of bodies.

Her yarn company, Indigodragonfly, is renowned for its vibrant colours, offbeat names, and ever expanding plan for world domination. Kim lives and works in the woods of Central Ontario, Canada.