Circular Logic

In this case, it's a good thing.

I've been obsessed with short rows lately. Specifically those that, when repeated at key intervals, result in the circular yoke of a sweater.
I've been trying to come up with a way to write a pattern for this yoke but have been flummoxed by the differing row gauges achieved by various knitters...
I'm working on it.

I've become infatuated with the horizontally knitted, circular, garter-stitch dickey Elizabeth Zimmerman was knitting in her video for Knitting Around. There was never a pettern for it, but the premise was that you knit a set of full rows (knit to end and purl back), then 2/3 of a row set, then 1/3... and repeat.
My yoke is a bit different since it starts at the neck edge:

knit across (from neck edge to shoulder), purl back
knit across, purl back 2/3, wrap & turn
knit across, purl back 1/3, wrap & turn

This yoke also takes into account the shoulder slope (for me or anyone) and the correct neck shaping. That is, not a circle, higher and straighter in the back than the front, and slightly straight when approaching the center front.

I've seen a couple of garments with circular yokes and decided I must make one with cables.
After experimenting with a bunch of cable combinations and starting and ripping back the yoke no less than 5 times, I've settled on the cables in the photo above.

This will be a free pattern, after I iron all the wrinkles out, and I'm working on a video/video podcast tutorial on working short rows for a circular yoke along with the first in a series of video stitch and technique dictionaries on cabling without a cable needle. It will available by mid-April, 2011.

I'm also concocting a v-neck version of this yoke for which there will be another free pattern/video.

In the meantime, I'll be spinning (and knitting) on...