If you buy jumbo eggs, you are often rewarded with a double yolk. Nice if it’s an egg. Not as great if it is a yoke sweater!!
I started a Dreyma top-down yoke sweater earlier this year. I used very similar colors and absolutely loved the look of the yoke.
As I continued, it became clear that the yoke was just not working. There was WAY too much fabric in the chest area, above the bust line. Handfuls!
The body fit. The neck fit. But what was wrong? Using the following formula, the numbers were right. However, reality begged to differ!
So, I cut off the yoke and started a bottom-up yoke instead. I cut off the sweater on the round right after the underarm cast on. Then I reversed direction to head up. I calculated all my numbers and, using the same stitch count, converted it to the Riddari, bottom-up, yoke. I provisionally cast on the sleeve sts so they could be knit top down. It worked perfectly!!
Here you see no bulging, no extra fabric, absolute perfection. So, if the stitch count below and above the two yokes were identical, why the difference?
I attribute this to three factors.
- The repeats of the two yokes are different. Riddari has an 8-stitch repeat, and Dreyma 10 stitch. That means for each dec/inc there is a change of 36 sts (Riddari) and 29 sts (Dreyma). That is about an inch and a half difference for each dec/inc. When I say “dec/inc” what I mean is: Riddari decreases per repeat; Dreyma increases per repeat.
- The placement of the dec/incs are different. Riddari has sets of 5 decs and Dreyma has 4 incs. On Riddari, they go lower down on the yoke.
- As I was knitting, I changed needle sizes. I usually go up a needle size for colorwork. The body is being knit on sz 7, so I started the Riddari colorwork on an 8. There was a single-color row in the Riddari chart, so I changed back to a 7, but I did not change back to an 8. Later, there was a second single color row. Again, I went down to a smaller needle (sz 6) and did not go back up. I finished out the yoke on a sz 6. On Dreyma, the colorwork was done on a sz 8 throughout.
I think all of the above variables contributed to the improvement.
I prefer the look of Dreyma, but I wasn’t able to transfer it to the Riddari chart without major rework and thinking! I did incorporate a few elements, but it does look much more like Riddari. It is growing on me! If this didn’t work, into the bin it would go! I am thinking of knitting some ribbing onto the Dreyma yoke to make it into a capelet.
I haven’t had this trouble with every yoke. I have had successes with these:
Alpine Bloom
Pagan Sky
I guess I am wondering why my first Jennifer Steinglass was a flop when so many people have made her sweaters without issue.
PS to Chloe: My neckline was fine, so I’m not sure that that was the problem. I usually do a provisional cast on for top-down sweaters so that I can control the size of the neck opening. I start with a stitch count AFTER the first set of increases. I prefer a larger neck so it’s not so constricting! AND I like tighter knit ribbing so I need more sts to do that.
PS2 to Lisa: Patient or lazy? I really didn’t want to waste all the knitting I had done below the armholes!!
