I created Mix and Match Body and Sleeve Sizing so that I could knit garment samples that fit me. My body isn’t like the size chart (read more about that here), so I typically have to customise knitting patterns to fit me. When I started designing my own, I wanted my samples to fit me so I could wear them, but they also needed to represent the fit you could get with the pattern out of the box. So I had to come up with a way of doing that.
I quickly realised that a drop shoulder could easily be made to fit me without too much fuss. My next thought was that if I need this customisation, surely other people do, too. So why not write the pattern with that assumption and, instead of treating my body shape like an irregularity that needed an adjustment, just… assume everyone will mix and match?
This is how Mix and Match Sizing was born, and the result – Roseability – was a hit.
I now only write garment patterns that use mix and match sizing, and have been working on applying the same approach to other construction methods.
You don’t need to understand how it works in order to knit my patterns, but if you’d like to, I’ve explained it all below.