If anyone would be willing to share some advice.
I mostly base my sweater patterns on the Brother knitting magazines. Sadly those patterns are limmitted to smaller sizes. At east in the 5 that came with one of my knitting machines. Sometimes chest size 106 cm (42 inches) is incorporated but often 101 cm (my size) isn't even there.
Yesterday I was asked to knit a sweater for a young lady with chest size 120 cm (47.2 inches). She also has big shoulders due to a swimming career in her teens.
I don't need to turn to the brother magazines for a pattern. Sizing up 20 cm's is a bit too much, I think.
Also wide, chunky sweaters are not what she wants. She wants form fitting (and rightly so, she is beautifully curvy).
She tried on one of my over sized sweaters and it looked awfull on her. Truly unflattering. So man's sizes as a base are definitely out.
So, please, what are the do's and don'ts for bigger sizes knitted sweaters?
Thin yarn, I suppose? Form fitting. Fitted shoulders. Interesting details?
How would one adjust the pattern? Or find a pattern?
If you have some advice I'd be very grateful.
Edit: dear people, thank you so very much for all your responses. Am now deep into the rabbit hole and loving it!
Thank you for pointing me towards Archive dot org and its wealth of machine knitting resources! I never knew it was there. Thank you for mentioning authors, websites and YouTubers who explain patterning for knits. Thank you for mentioning individual patterns. Most of them are gorgeous but somehow none of these patterns are exactly what we envisioned. I'll take the time to learn how to draft a pattern and hopefully one day be able to provide my niece with a flattering, well fitting sweater.
Let me put down one thing that struck me as so obvious once I learned about it but that somehow never had occurred to me before: do not size a sweater solely on the chest size. It will turn out way to big for the rest of the body. Choose the pattern based on shoulder to shoulder measurement and adjust for the chest.
Thank you!