Thursday, April 18, 2013

Fit to Flatter and Revelations!

I'm a long-time listener of the Stash and Burn podcast.  I'm not always current, but I do listen eventually.  In episode 127 Nicole interviewed the author of a new book, Fit to Flatter, Amy Herzog.  It was an interesting interview, and Amy also talked about her new Craftsy class of the same title.  I pretty much bought it right away, and I must say it's been quite a learning experience.  I plan on buying the book shortly.

I feel like I've always understood the math and construction techniques needed to adjust sweaters to fit, but I've not quite known what those adjustments should be for myself.  I certainly have resisted the need for waist shaping (as I am nearly as straight as a person can be) with a fair dose of animosity towards those preaching in the Church of Waist Shaping, as they nearly always have a lovely hourglass shape.  Amy preaches waist shaping, but recognizes that not everyone has a waist and makes recommendations that are realistic and practical for me.  Also, Amy's approach to picking a size and making adjustments from there has been something of a revelation to me, although it makes perfect sense and I'm not sure why I wouldn't have thought of it before.

I'm very excited to knit a sweater with this new information, although I do have a few in progress already.  My question is: do I knit a completely fresh sweater?  Do I rip out one that I never wear and fix it?  I'm not sure which is more compelling.  Using stash is a good thing, but so is using a sweater that is languishing as moth food in the back of my closet.

Discuss.

BTW, I have enjoyed the two Craftsy classes I've taken.  I like the format and support materials around them.  I am not a person who needs a lot of teacher-student interaction, so for me these are almost as good as a class taken at Stitches or the like.  They have some very good teachers providing the classes now as well, and I highly recommend them especially for classes that you will not have access to in real life any time soon.  For example, someday I will take Shirley Paden's class on sweater design.  I don't think she's ever come to Stitches Midwest (my main source of knitting classes) and Craftsy is cheaper anyway.  Win - win.

2 comments:

Vicki Knitorious said...

I've been a fan of Amy's for a long time! Her designs are wonderful, and she makes perfect sense.

I'm pondering whether to rip out a sweater that's too big and starting over. There may be a couple of candidates, actually. I've done it in the past!

Vicki Knitorious said...

Oh, and I *love* Craftsy! I've taken a number of classes, and they have some great FREE content, too.