Let’s talk about Boxy sweater ease

I’ve knit eight Boxy sweaters (Joji Locatelli bottom up Boxy sweaters) and several others that have a boxy silhouette. I love wearing them and anticipate making many more. Some I’ve knit exactly as written in the pattern and some I’ve tweaked in one or more ways.

First I’m going to focus on selecting a size

You may not want the full amount of ease but don’t go too small. It’s a dropped shoulder design so it needs to be oversized. I think a minimum of 20-25% of your bust circumference is needed. For a 36” bust, that’s 7” to 8.4”. For a 42” bust that’s 8.5”-10.5”. If you are fuller at the waist or hips, you want to make sure there’s some ease there too.

If you reduce the amount of ease, the body will hit higher up on your arm. You may need a deeper arm opening because of this. You’ll probably want to knit your sleeve longer too.

1. to determine where the body hits on your arm, measure the width of your sweater. You can figure this width out from your swatch before you cast on and use that information to decide what size to knit before you cast on.

2. divide that number by 2. If the width of the sweater is 30”, that’s 15”

3. have someone measure your back width from the bump at the base of your neck down one arm to determine where the drop shoulder will land.

4. Measure your arm circumference at that point. Add 1/2” to 1 1/2” of ease. Divide that number by 2 to calculate the arm depth on your sweater body.

That’s it for now. I’ll be writing a few other posts covering other tips for Boxy sweaters.