2010 Tribute Sweater: Carving Some Turns (the yoke)

We left off at the base of the funnel neck.... here's the yoke:

And the (hand-drawn) charted version:

 

Here's what you need to do:

1) Figure out (based on your gauge and measurements) how many rounds you will need to cover the distance from the base of the neckline to the point of your shoulder. (The ski tracks design ends at that point, with the bear claw motifs "hanging" from a horizontal braid immediatlely underneath the tracks.) This number is all you need to draw up your own "ski track" chart - you can adjust the increase rate (see #3) on the fly if you need to.

2) Grab a piece of graph paper, mark the number of squares corresponding to the number of rounds determined in #1 and draw a wave that starts where the neckline wave leaves off and ends at the apex of a curve. (The bear claw design will complete the other half of the curve.) This will be your central rib wave. Refine it to whatever degree you require to be able to see where to cross the twisted stitch rib left or right.

3) Decide how big around you want the yoke to be at the point of the shoulder. If you have square shoulders, you will probably want to achieve most of your maximal yoke circumference by then; if you have very round shoulders, you may want to spread the increases out over the full depth of the yoke. Or something in between. Number of increase points = # of neck stitches/8.  (Stitches at the shoulder point) minus (stitches at the neck) divided by no. of increase points = frequency of increase rounds. (Probably every third round if your size is similar to mine.)

4) The knitting (starting at the base of the neck ribbing and twisting all knit stitches):

Rnd 1: *k1,p1,k1,p1,k1,p1,pfb,p1; rep. from * to the end. This is the first increase round and creates groups of 3 ribs with a p4 section between.  Mark the middle rib of each group with a moveable stitch marker.

Thereafter: follow your chart. The middle rib of each triplet follows the charted wave exactly for the entire distance. The ribs on either side start off parallel to the middle one, but as the increases create more room, they may be allowed to move away from the middle rib to keep all ribs approximately equidistant. You could chart out the whole thing, but it requires lots of math and careful visualisation of a simultaneously expanding and waving wedge - I found it simpler and just as effective to ad lib their movements. The general principle (illustrated above) is to either shorten or lengthen the apex of the curve in relation to the middle rib. 

A word about increases: The increases go in the space between the rib triplets - one increase in each space, every third round, or as your calculations have determined. After the first increase round, I used m1p to create the increases. By trial and error, I found the most invisible location to be on the inside of a curve - if the increase stitch is crossed by a rib on the following round, any irregularity is completely hidden. On the straightaways, placing the m1p adjacent to a rib is still preferable to the middle of a purl section.

And that will get you to the bottom of the ski run. Those who are knitting along, please feel free to comment if you need clarification on any point....

Here's a quick and nasty bathroom mirror self-portrait of the sweater progress as of this evening:

One last note - I have elected not to work short-rows to raise the back of the neck/shoulders. I'm normally a huge fan of this technique, as I hate a restrictive neckline at the throat and love the fit yielded by short-rows in a circular yoke, but I really didn't want to mess with separately charting waves for the back of the sweater in order to make them all finish at the same place. I figure my funnel neck has enough ease to mitigate the situation.

Comments

[CuddleDemon]

I'm starting to get the feeling of ski slopes with the swoosh of those waves in the yoke.

[Elisabeth]

About half way down the yoke - progress is a bit slow, because my days are so busy. Last week I got an unexpected opportunity to be an assistant in a weekend therapy group, which was great, but seriously diminished my knitting time! Not easy to combine a full time job and a family with part time studies and a fiber addiction :-)
So ... not moving ahead very fast, but looking good so far. I'll take some photos soon for a Ravelry project page.

[Cindy]

This is lovely. With young children, we carve the snow in sleds instead of skis but this certainly brings happy times to mind. (We have been uncharacteristically without fresh snow for several weeks here in Maine and I'm about to go out of my mind!)