About body types

In my body hugging patterns I usually use several shaping alternatives to able knitters to adjust the pattern to fit their own body. I refer to different letters when describing the body types in the patterns. It’s shorter to refer to one letter than the full name with long descriptions.

The five most common body types are:

X-body alias hourglass – The upper body and the hips are approximately the same width and with a distinct waist definition.

• bust about the same width as the hip-line
• defined waist

A-body alias pear – The upper body is smaller than your hips and with a waist definition.well defined waist

• bust and shoulders are proportionally narrower than hip-line
• thighs and but might be full and round

H-body alias rectangular – Upper body and the hips are the same width and with really small waist definition.

• bust and shoulders about the same width as the hip-line
• little or no waist definition

Y-body alias inverted triangle – Upper body is wider than the hips and with small waist definition.shoulders wider than your hips

• hips are narrow
• flat but

O-body alias apple – Upper body is wider than the hips and with absolutely no waist definition.wide around the waistline

• no waist definition
• hips and but might be full along with waist
• bust, waist and hips are very close in measurements

These body types are generalizations and means. And of course not everybody fits to these body types. – I’m a good example of someone who doesn't fit exactly to any of the general body types. Why? I have wide shoulders, almost no boobs, distinct waist and wide hips. I don’t fit to the X-body because I don’t have boobs, even though from distance my body might look like it would be an hourglass. So I’m a mix of body types Y and A with special feature of having my real waist, the narrowest part of my torso, right below my nonexistent boobs. Oh and then I have a swayback and one side of my hips is much fuller then the other…

Luckily knitted garments stretch and are very forgiving to our imperfect yet gorgeous bodies!

I don’t include all the body types to every pattern, but do often include at least shaping alternatives for the bust and for a swayback (entirely for personal reasons). Pattern description tells you if the pattern includes shaping alternatives.