Fluid Garments - A new way to think about sweater fit

You know that I am fanatic about fit. Club Crazy for Ewe is all about helping knitters make sweaters that fit perfectly—from length and width to armhole depth and sleeve length, shaping the garment to fit your body contours and preferences. But there’s a different kind of garment design that doesn’t shape the fabric to conform to the body. Instead, it allows the body to create the shape. This is the guiding principle behind the fluid, modern silhouettes designed by Yumiko Alexander, and Shellie Anderson, and Britt-Marie Brehmer, to name a few.  Creating that fluidity and drape is often what's behind using finer yarns and holding two strands together as we talked about in this blog post, and in this video.  

Unstructured, fluid garments are a welcome alternative warm weather sweaters that feel too close or too heavy.  They are easy, elegant, and graceful, without being shapeless or boring.

You’ve seen it before: designer ready-to-wear

If you’re familiar with Donna Karan and Eileen Fisher, you’ve already seen this kind of garment in action. These brands are built on easy shapes in natural fabrics—pieces that layer beautifully, feel amazing on the body, and have a universal appeal that never goes out of style.  Fluid handknit garment designers sit comfortably in this lineage. They bring the same quiet sophistication to their garments—all designed to feel light, wearable, and timeless.

Plant-based yarns help make it possible

Fluid garments rely on the right fabric--plant-based fibers like linen, cotton, and silk are ideal because these fibers:

• Have less elasticity than wool, which makes the fabric fall in soft, straight lines
• Tend to drape more at the same gauge, especially in lighter constructions
• Breathe well and are comfortable in a wide range of temperatures

Wool, with its springy crimp, adds bounce to fabric—great when you want structure and recovery. But for fluidity, you want drape, which is exactly what linen and other plant-based fibers provide.

As I said in last week’s blog, most 100% plant-based yarns can be more challenging to knit, by but whether by construction, blending, and gauge, these yarns can be quite lovely.  DanDoh Linen uses a chainette construction to create a light and breathable fabric right off the needles.  Rowan Creative Linen blends cotton to make the linen soft - especially after blocking, and Ito Yarns makes a gorgeous array of fine fibers.  All of these are nice enough right off the needles, but after blocking, they open up into something magical. This week on YouTube, I’ll be demonstrating exactly how to block plant based yarns to create a fluid fabric. 

Fit—but not as you know it

One of the things I loved most in my interview with Yumiko was when she said:

"The body creates the shape"

That is a big shift in thinking about fit. Instead of stressing about precise measurements, what if we chose to trust the fabric, knit garments large enough to drape, and allow our own form to shape the design?

This concept is hard for many knitters—we’re so conditioned to think about ease in a certain way, but there’s no denying the appeal of these garments and their beauty on a wide variety of body sizes and shapes.

Many fluid garments--Yumiko’s in particular--are very basic shapes—often just two rectangles. Getting away from size and thinking more in terms of width, you begin to see how these simple shapes create dropped shoulders. The wider the fabric, the more sleeve the garment creates. You can choose to leave the garment as is with just the dropped shoulder sleeve, or you can add additional sleeves of any length you like once the body is created.

It’s a wonderfully flexible approach to garment making.

See it for yourself

If you’re local to Crazy for Ewe, we have several of Yumiko’s stunning samples in the shop through Sunday, May 18th as part of the DanDoh Trunk Show—come see how these pieces look and feel in person!  I'll also have several of my own fluid garments in the shop to share with you on a more permanent basis. 

You can also hear Yumiko talk about her design process on my YouTube channel where I share my interview with her. She’s thoughtful, kind, and incredibly inspiring.

All DanDoh Linen colors are in stock, so now is the perfect time to start your own fluid garment project.

Let me know in the comments what you think about fluid fabrics like this and the designs that use them.  

Warmly,
Ellen

p.s. - before you decide that your style is too tailored to wear this kind of garment, let me just tell you that Ginni Stein, the most tailored person I know, loves Joinery. It's a perfect in-between for the not-a-poncho type that still enjoys the cool comfort of DanDoh Linen designs.  

In case you missed the Yumiko Alexander interview