The first step to knitting sweaters that perfectly fit and flatter is to fully accept that your body has a shape quite apart from its size, and that clothing can manipulate the shape of your body - for better or worse. Most of us focus on our overall size, our weight (which is just a number), or some tiny aspect of our figure that we dislike. That's a shame - for more reasons than I can fit on this page. Neither those perceived figure "flaws" nor our overall size actually have much to do with whether or not a particular piece of clothing flatters our figure. It's our shape, which typically stays constant as we gain or lose weight, that is the crucial determining factor. -From Chapter 1: Discovering Your Body Type