Well, the 2016 hackathon may be over, but I still love a good hack! While making a sweater for my Mum’s 60th birthday I decided to hack the Clayoquot cardigan, making it a pullover.
My Mum has always loved red, grey and plaid. These are her wardrobe staples, classic and unchanging. This means it is fairly easy to make things for her because I know what will work, and what will be worn often. So I embarked on a sweater for mum with some classic geometric fair isle in red, white, and charcoal; a guaranteed win!
Ever since I designed the Clayoquot cardigan in 2014 for Road Trip, I have wanted to try it out as a pullover, and this seemed just the right opportunity. Mum even requested a pullover, perfect! I used the beautiful Sweet Fiber Merino Twist DK in ‘charcoal’, ‘Ina’s red’ and ‘winter’, a combination I adore! The sweater took a *smidge* longer than I had hoped, but no matter, it’s done and it’s perfect!
How I Hacked It:
The hacks were pretty simple for this one. The important points are:
Sleeves: work these exactly as written.
Pockets: I skipped them.
Body cast-on: cast on 1 less stitch than it calls for in the pattern. Your steek stitches aren’t needed but your 1″ button band won’t be there, so it actually all evens out.
Charts: you don’t need the steek stitches or the edge stitches for the charts, just the repeats. To work the charts in the yoke you want to make sure the number of sts you decrease to is divisible by the chart repeat (so if the chart repeat is 8 sts, the number of sts you have should be divisible by 8). A few sts decreased here or there isn’t going to make or break your sweater, throw in a couple of extra k2togs to get to the number you need.
Join at the yoke: The Clayoquot cardigan was knit from the bottom up, that means the body and sleeves were knit first and then joined together for the yoke. In the original sweater there is a steek in the middle, so there is no pattern jog (well, there is, but it’s in the steek so you can’t notice it). But for a pullover you want the beginning of round (BOR) to be at the back (I put mine at the back of the left shoulder).
To accomplish this work your joining row as follows: knit 1/2 your body sts minus your underarm sts, knit across one sleeve, place your underarm sts on waste yarn, knit to end of the body except the underarm sts (place those on waste yarn), knit across sleeve sts, place BOR marker. You are now joined for the round with the marker at the back of the left shoulder.
Short Rows: You’ll need to position your back neck short rows around the centre back, (because we re-positioned the BOR marker, if you work the short rows as written they will end up around your right shoulder and front, not quite what you are looking for).
Voila! A perfect pullover. Mum loves it, and it was a pretty relaxing knit, with a little fair isle at the yoke to keep things interesting.
More Fair Isle fun from TCK:
January 13, 2022 @ 8:48 am
I initially thought it was a jumper not a cardigan I’m going to try the hack
September 13, 2018 @ 8:07 am
I’m also looking to make this as a pullover. I’ll try the hack…
September 10, 2017 @ 7:29 am
I would buy this instantly if you’d write up the pattern as a pullover. I’m nervous about incorporating your hacks on my own, and I’ll bet I’m not alone!
September 10, 2017 @ 7:27 am
I would love to buy this pattern written as a pullover!
March 14, 2017 @ 10:16 am
So so lovely! I’m your mom’s age, and I, too, ADORE this color combo.
March 14, 2017 @ 6:05 am
Just recently found your blog. Love your patterns. This sweater is beautiful! I love the color combination.