The received wisdom is that petite frames should avoid chunky knitwear. It is not wrong so much as unhelpfully broad: the problem was never weight, it was volume arriving in the wrong places and staying there.
Gauge, length, neckline
Gauge controls how far the fabric stands away from the body.Footnote 1 A heavy yarn knitted at a tighter gauge gives the same warmth with perhaps a third of the projection. Body length controls where the volume stops: 22″–23″ finishes at the high hip and keeps the waistband visible, while 26″ turns a sweater into a tunic and removes the highest useful horizontal line from the outfit.
Neckline depth is the one most often overlooked. A high crew on a short neck closes the only vertical space above the shoulders. A wider or slightly deeper neckline reopens it, which is why the same sweater in a V or a wide boat neck can look like a different garment.
Volume is fine. Volume that never ends is the problem.
Keep the waistband visible, keep the neckline open, and the yarn can be as heavy as the weather requires.
