Now that I have actually made a second CustomFit pattern, some of you have asked about the process and how it worked out for me. So here it is 🙂 And I apologize in advance – this is a bit long.

There are some preliminary steps you have to take to get started with CustomFit. The first and most basic thing is your measurements. This can be the hardest thing on an emotional level, depending on how you feel about your body. Also on a practical level, you really need someone to help you get your measurements for some of them to be accurate. If you can do this with a friend or relative you feel comfortable with, that is probably going to work out best.

If you want to get super in-depth with this process and finding the garment shapes and so on that will work best for you, there are resources you would need to pay for – Amy Herzog’s first book, Knit to Flatter, and her Bluprint (formerly Craftsy) class of the same name will walk you through measurements and how to find the clothing shapes that will flatter you most. However, if you don’t want to get crazy about it, there are free resources accessible right there on the CustomFit website.

From there you create your account, which you do for free. You can store up to 10 sets of measurements, in case you want to knit custom fitted patterns for anyone else as well as for you. From there, you have a wide range of choices. You can either pick one of the sweater designs built into the program and have it personalized for you, or you can use the sweater generator to design your own pattern with an array of necklines, silhouettes, stitch patterns, etc to choose from.

The other prep work you have to do is knit a swatch for each sweater you want to personalize, as well as make a few other decisions, such as how close you want your sweater to fit. Your measurements + the gauge swatch for the yarn you want to use gives the program the data it needs to personalize your sweater pattern for you.

You also have choices with how to buy patterns. You can either just buy them one at a time as you want them, or you can buy a subscription. The subscription is more economical, but it can be a little bit of a struggle to keep up with. While you certainly don’t have to knit all the patterns you generate within a year, you do have to keep knitting swatches. Which may or may not be a struggle for you – it was for me.

So, how do the patterns turn out? I have done two now, my imaginatively named Gray Cardigan and my Dockside cardigan. I made up the Gray Cardigan using the sweater generator, and Dockside is one of Amy Herzog’s patterns that is built into the program. They both fit exactly as I want them to, and the directions were perfect. So I’m calling that two for two.

Is it worth it? That will depend. It will likely not be worth it to you if:
-you find most commercially written patterns fit you fine
-you are comfortable with altering patterns to suit your measurements by yourself
-you aren’t that concerned with fit in general

Otherwise, I will say it is worth it. You don’t have to go through and highlight the directions and stitch counts for your size. It’s all written in one size – yours. You can also personalize things like sleeve length, sweater length, neckline, and much more. So when I say you get exactly the sweater you want, I mean really down to the last detail. Having a pattern that is personalized for your body and your yarn is pretty nice.

I did have a subscription in the past, but think going forward I will just pay for patterns as I want them. It is cheaper per pattern to have the subscription, but then you are generating patterns that won’t be knit for years. How do I know what size I will be then, or if a given yarn will be available then (unless you are also stashing yarn as you go)?

So that’s my 2 cents on CustomFit 🙂 Have you tried out CustomFit or any other pattern generating program? If so, what did you think of it?