OK so I am taking some new meds to help clear up my skin and the stuff knocks me out. No knitting. Instead a rant. It all started when I was hitting some not too often hit knit blogs and Marnie mentioned that she had upsized some of her patterns. Now I like her patterns but they are teeny tiny. Really they are. I decided to go peek anyway. The size XL has a finished bust of 42.75″ Yah I am big wanna make a deal about it? Anyway I was looking at some standards and the yarn standards site lists that as a L but who am I to quibble. Maybe I really am huge and, OK I know I am overweight, but didn’t realize how huge. But here’s the rub. The avg American woman wears a size 16. It used to be 8 til oh the 90’s when women bitched bout unrealitistic stuff and it was upped to 12-14 but just last year or so there was a news report{can’t find it} that said 16. The actual bust to dress size conversion gives 42.5″ for a size 14 so this XL sweater is designed for no ease on the smaller than avg female form. The conversion btw is 44.5″ actual bust measurement for a size 16 so standard 4″ ease would make the sweater 48.5″ for the average woman. I gotta assume the avg woman is like me who used to be smaller and then had kids and hit you know adulthood agewise{I will be 40 in a few months} For reference sake the actual bust measurement of a woman who wears a size 8 is 37.5″ add your ease and you have what many magazines and designers consider L or XL. If there are any industry folks that pop into my blog please get real. The average knitter is not necessarily smaller than the average American woman. Especially when you are hoping she will spend just a little more time sitting on her dufus knitting your stuff. I suppose we could put down the needles and excercise instead….. BTW my mom was a size 3 until oh my late 20’s even after having 3 kids and I know smaller women need clothes too and have a hard time finding them. And yes she had 3 kids so I am not blaming my kids for what I put in my mouth and won’t get outta the knitting chair to do. But whats wrong with you know making a size 12 or 14 Medium for you know Average and going down and up?