In which I explain more about Tangled Yoke - substitutions and gauge change

I knit a sweater in Felted Tweed last year (Salina) and though I loved working with the yarn, I didn't want a whole sweater out of it just yet. For some reason, I also knew wholeheartedly that Tangled Yoke, for me, should be a pullover. Before I started knitting it, I found this henley version, which is truly lovely, but again, not for me.

I was originally eyeing up Cascade 220 for my version, but couldn't pass up a gorgeous bag of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK in a deep lime green, which I scored for £20. Well, by scored, I mean, wiped a small tear from my eye as I paid for it, because it's been discontinued. Woe.

So here I am, different gauge, pullover, etc. The swatch gave me 5.75 sts/in after being knit in the round and washed, a fairly significant difference form the original pattern, so I struck out on my own, basing my stitch count on a schematic I made of a favourite pullover.



Those are my measurements, should you ever care to knit something for me. *wink*

I knit and everything was lovely. I was knitting the Tangled Yoke for NaKniSweMo, way back in November. Remember that? I knit like the wind, like a fiend, I was in love with the yarn, with the pattern, I struggled through the cabling and persevered, and then? This.



See all that buckling? This is when I learned it was WAY too big at the top. Like, handfuls too big, at least 20 or 30 stitches too many from the bust up. I wailed and gnashed my teeth, but went ahead and finished the sweater as best as I could, basically running out of yarn in the process.



Then two days later I ripped out the yoke to the armpits and the body to the waist, determined to make everything better...

Tangled Yoke Pullover or, a multitude of modifications resulting in a delightful sweater

This is not a post about my trials and tribulations of getting this sweater to fit me properly, not yet. Instead, we'll cover the fun part, dissecting and modifying the cable - if you'd like to change your gauge, or change the cardigan into a pullover - or do both, like I did.



Of course, the hardest part of modifying this sweater is getting the appropriate amount of stitches for the yoke. Lucky for you, dear reader, I did all that work and will give you the formula.

The basic formula for the number of stitches needed for the cable yoke section as charted is as follows: multiple of 20 stitches plus 36. Use this formula if you’re knitting the cardigan version. For the pullover, I added an extra 5 stitches, to make up for the lack of a button band, so my formula was: multiple of 20 stitches plus 41 stitches.

Want to see how it all breaks down? Here’s the schematic I used:



The four stitches at either side of the 5-stitch centre are written into the pattern, and the cable chart starts (and ends) at the 12-stitch section. Since it's in the round, you don't need to purl the non-cabled rows, but watch for the increases and decreases which are between the cable-knit rows.

I decided, based on my gauge, how many stitches to go with on the cabled section, which worked perfectly both times I did the cable, despite messing up the actual body measurements the first time.

(Version One
was much too large at the upperbust, resulting in me pulling it back to the armpits of the sleeves and the waist of the body. I added shortrows for the bust which worked a treat. I also decided that I wanted the cable ON my shoulders, instead of around it, resulting in modifications and major short-rowing that I'll talk about next time...)