Free Pattern! The Farrington Pullover from Knitting Plus

The Farrington Pullover. The designs were all named after streets or areas in places Lisa has lived. Farrington is her favorite country road in the Piedmont of North Carolina—she drives it to her favorite hiking trails and to the best veggie/berry stand in the area.

When knitting sweaters, I find that the one problem I have over and over again is in the length—I make my sweaters too short! And I'm short myself, so why is this a problem?

It's because I'm a plus-size gal, and I have more padding in the front than in the back. Most of us do, but for plus-sizers, that padding can be many more inches larger than our slimmer compatriots' padding. I've been knitting for years now, so I should really be customizing my sweaters more expertly to alleviate this problem.

In Knitting Plus, author Lisa Shroyer provides a lot of tips, tricks, and in-depth how-to-knit information about customizing patterns to fit our curves.

These tips work for all women, too, not just plus-sized women—we're all shaped differently, with more or less endowments here and there, so we all need to think about our body shapes when knitting.

I looked through Knitting Plus to find ideas for fixing my short-sweater problem, and I found a great insight that I thought you might be interested in, too.

The first one is about the most attractive length for plus-sized folks.

Getting the Right Fit

If a sweater hem falls at the same point as the waistband of your pants (right), the effect can be unattractive. This highlights a fleshy abdomen and makes the sweater look too small overall. A hem that falls a few inches below the waistband (far right) has a more flattering and refined look.

A longer body length has a slimming effect on plus-size women and can cover awkward areas like a lower belly pooch. If a hemline falls at the midline of your abdomen, it can highlight this wideness instead of drawing the eye onto other areas.

Avoid having your sweater hem fall at the same point as the waistband on your pants-this line usually falls between two rolls of flesh. Both your pants and sweater are sucked into the space, which highlights the contours above and below. If you raise your arms or move around much, your sweater will creep up and expose your belly. For plus-size women, I recommend sweater hems that fall at least a couple of inches below the waistband.

—Lisa Shroyer, from Knitting Plus

	Isn't this "V-neck" fantastic?

So simple—just make the sweater a couple of inches longer. I must admit that sometimes I just want to be DONE, so I quit before I should. I know somewhere in my brain that I should keep going, but I don't. I promise to keep knitting until I get to the right length, not just the length listed in the pattern schematics, which may or may not be the right length for me.

In order to find the right length, I need to measure a sweater that I like the length of, and note that measurement in my notebook. I've done this before but I long ago misplaced the scrap of paper I wrote the measurement on. Sigh.

Anyway, we wanted you to try out Knitting Plus so we're offering a free pattern, the Farrington Pullover, designed by Lisa and featured on the cover of Knitting Plus.

I love the mock V-neck design; it's such a wonderful highlight in a simple sweater.

Download the Farrington Pullover, and get your copy of Knitting Plus for more fantastic patterns and techniques, too!

Cheers,