Hi there! I’ve heard people mention that many people dislike proportional ease, where the amount of ease in a garment is a percentage of your measurement (like 15% ease on a 34" bust is 5", and on a 60" bust is 9". I understand why many people don’t like it for positive ease garments, but I haven’t been able to find much about it online for negative ease garments. Does anyone here have any thoughts about it, particularly plus-size knitters?
More context below:
I ask because I’m working on a pattern for an extremely stretchy ribbed sweater. My sample for a 34" bust has 12" of negative ease - this corresponds to ~21" of negative ease on a 60" bust. Which sounds crazy, I know! But this is a 2x2 ribbed garment, where the fabric still has a ton of stretch left-over - when I wear my sample, I can still stretch it out to fit another one of me inside it. I figured I should grade it based off the desired stitches per inch of how stretched the ribbing should be, so it would have a consistent look across all sizes. If the ribbing is stretched less (which would be the case if I have less negative ease on larger sizes), then the purl columns won’t be as visible, so the bust shaping design feature won’t be noticeable, and I overall think the look and fit would be quite different from my sample.
I sent this to an experienced tech editor and she told me that this much ease “definitely won’t fit” but wasn’t able to articulate why this would be the case over email (she wanted to do a call but then cancelled and I’m anxious to move forward with the pattern so I want more opinions). Could anyone share their thoughts on negative ease garments like this one, especially if you’re dealing with a veryyy stretchy fabric like wool ribbing?