I feel like I should begin this post by making 3 key points about me and my body before getting into the real issue at hand:

1. I am a skinny person. No, not one of those imaginary skinny people, or one of those people who diets 24/7 and works out everyday to be skinny. I’m just thin. Always have been, and if my mom is any indicator of my future, always will be. On a regular day, I clock in at just under 120 pounds. I eat every two hours and I have a fast metabolism. I’m grateful for it because it has allowed me to enjoy as much chocolate as I like.
2. I am not obsessed with my weight. I don’t weigh myself regularly and I don’t care what number is connected to my body size unless it is unhealthy. In fact, the only time I weigh myself is when I go to the doctor, or when my doctor tells me to. I have never in my life been on a diet. Ever. I go to the gym twice a week on doctor’s orders so I don’t develop high cholesterol (thanks, dad), high blood pressure (thanks, mom), diabetes (thanks, every member of my extended family, including both grandmothers), or kidney failure (thanks, again, mom).
3. I have huge boobs. Not Pamela Anderson big or anything, but they’re large for my frame. I’m a 32 D. My waist is roughly 23 inches, my hips are about 35. When you’re 5′5″ and only weigh 120 pounds, anything above a B cup is bound to look huge on you. As a result, I cannot wear halter tops, strapless bras, tube tops, etc. My boobs seriously hinder my clothing choices… and now they are hindering my knitting.

So now that I got those 3 big points out of the way, I can get to the point. There is absolutely no clothing in the world that fits me properly (while I’m sure this can be said for a lot of women, I think my comment is justified. When a plain t-shirt makes you look pregnant because you bought the size that fit your breasts, there is something wrong with the world). This is why I have become so fond of knitting: I can customize things to fit me - or, well, soon I will be able to. When I go clothes shopping (which is rare, because it tends to be fruitless), I have a difficult time finding tops that fit. My body requires a size small, while my breasts tend to require a size large… or a very big medium.

Being a busty knitter isn’t really that bad except for one thing: almost every single pattern for tops provides only one torso measurement. And guess what that is for? Yup. Chest. Which makes my life extremely difficult, especially since I’m just now getting used to modifying patterns. On top of all that, the smallest size is always too large for my tiny tummy. It seems like the knitting world was only meant for average sized people or oddly shaped people who are pros at modifying patterns.

I have yet to attempt a pullover of any kind, just button ups or cardis that don’t close. I’m running out of things on my queue to make before I hit Eunny’s deep v-neck argyle vest and all of the other pullovers I’ve been dying to make.

So, fellow busty knitters, how do you solve the bust-to-belly problem in patterns? What do you do if the breast is too small and the belly too big? Do you modify the bust section’s length by adding short rows? Do you do increases across the chest and decreases across the stomach? Or, better yet, does anyone have any patterns that are designed specifically with hourglass figures in mind?

Or - brain wave - a good tutorial for modifying knitting patterns?

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