Yoke sweaters… Do you knit to fit or do you biased knit?
Was I ever biasedly knitting? ABSOLUTELY!!!
Whether the design was by a famous knitwear designer or a viral sweater everyone was knitting, I have done it. If this popular designer created this sweater, or this sweater is so popular then it must have a great fit too!!! And if I checked out the same projects on RAVELRY and some didn’t seem to fit quite right - well, probably, it’s their choice of yarn, or their gauge, or some other excuse. Sometimes we ignore what is right in front of us only because it’s popular or a person we admire designed it. We are all biased in one way or another.
Honestly, the knits I made were gorgeous, but… the fit was not right in 100% of the sweaters. Where are all those pieces? GIVEN AWAY!!!
After years of admiring, studying, and knitting yoke sweaters, I learned to look past the beauty of the garment (I believe ALL sweaters are GORGEOUS!) and see what I have to do to adjust the fit.
I don’t even know if anyone is interested in or cares much about yoke sweaters and how to improve the fit of one but here it is - years of research and trying to shape and structure the iconic yoke.
We all know the basic Yoke construction, the cone with the hole for the neck opening and evenly spaced increases from the neckline opening to god knows where.
The good… easy to write a pattern, easy to apply a fair isle pattern, and pretty easy to knit.
The bad… What happens when you put this cone over the body?
It depends on the neckline opening but mostly the back neckline will be positioned lower than most people would like, exposing the top part of the back. The front neckline will be so close to your throat choking you that you will be constantly pulling the sweater down.
The ugly… Don’t even get me started on this.. did anyone notice that humans have shoulders? We are not cone-shaped! I think we need to give an ever-tolerating yarn a little bit of a break and shape it, not stretch it.
The back of my to be published soon modified yoke sweater
One more thing… with the yoke construction we have to make increases anywhere from the neckline to the underarm area for the body and sleeves of the sweater. With small sizes, you don’t usually notice those increases (decreases if you work bottom-up), but with larger sizes what ends up happening is many more stitches have to be increased/decreased evenly creating this bubble-shaped body. And, unless it’s a specific design, I don want to look like a ball with ruffles.
My solution to this is to never make increases in the vertical line of the neckline opening. Period! I work my increases around the shoulders only.
Shoulders have to be properly shaped too, we can’t just make even increases in the round for the yoke and hope that the yarn will just magically stretch over the shoulders. Yes, it will stretch to some extent, but there is a way to make it fit better, although it creates a challenge in some Fair Isle designs for the Fair Isle pattern distribution in the yoke. How many times have you knitted a yoked cardigan that won’t stay on your shoulders? Do you know why? Because the designer never thought about shaping the shoulders so the sweater will fit your body and not maybe stretch over your shoulders to maybe stay there a little longer without falling off. You can make increases for the shoulders while shaping the neckline with short rows. There are different ways how to do it; in the very middle of the shoulder spaces a few stitches apart in an even line, or only at the back making even increases running from the back neckline to the back of an arm, or in a fan-like manner from the base of the shoulder out, etc.
My solution to this is to never make increases in the vertical line of the neckline opening. Period! I work my increases around the shoulders only.
Shoulders have to be properly shaped too, we can’t just make even increases in the round for the yoke and hope that the yarn will just magically stretch over the shoulders. Yes, it will stretch to some extent, but there is a way to make it fit better, although it creates a challenge in some Fair Isle designs for the Fair Isle pattern distribution in the yoke. How many times have you knitted a yoked cardigan that won’t stay on your shoulders? Do you know why? Because the designer never thought about shaping the shoulders so the sweater will fit your body and not maybe stretch over your shoulders to maybe stay there a little longer without falling off. You can make increases for the shoulders while shaping the neckline with short rows. There are different ways how to do it; in the very middle of the shoulder spaces a few stitches apart in an even line, or only at the back making even increases running from the back neckline to the back of an arm, or in a fan-like manner from the base of the shoulder out, etc.
I knit way too many sweaters trying to figure out how to make the yoke sweater/cardigan fit better and I think I accomplished that, or at least most of it. At this point, I am more confident in my designs and can create better-fitting knits.
This is a promise to show you and teach you in the upcoming year how to knit a modified yoke sweater with a better shape. No Biased opinions, just knit to fit.
