I’ve been fascinated with Ushya ever since it showed up at Crazy for Ewe this winter. The plies are braided together to make a thick, airy yarn with a hollow core. After coveting this vibrant blue colorway for a week or so, I finally decided to buy enough to make an oversize sweater before it all disappeared from the shop. Then I perused super bulky pullover patterns on Ravelry and decided on this Drops tunic. I love the central cable pattern, and the fact that it uses cables, lacework, and bobbles makes it really fun to knit.

My biggest concern with the pattern was that the center panel is fixed width, with the larger sizes formed by widening the sides. I was afraid that this would make the cable section too narrow to flatter my body. The reason for the fixed-width cable panel is clear; since the pattern flows from the ribbing at the base of the sweater, you can’t adjust the center panel without affecting the ribbing. I mulled over this for a while before a solution occurred to me; I increased the purl sections in the ribbing to spread everything out, which gave me about an extra inch and a half in the center. More precisely, instead of starting with K3 P4 ribbing and decreasing to K3 P3 ribbing, I started with K3 P5 ribbing and decreased to K3 P4 ribbing. I adjusted the first center chart (M.2a) to account for the fact that the knit columns on either side of the center were 11 stitches apart instead of 9, and then followed the remaining center cable charts as written. This meant that I was effectively following the front pattern for the medium size, except with wider purl spaces.

I inadvertently twisted the side cables every six rows instead of every eight. I didn’t notice this until halfway through the back, so I’m glad I like it the way it turned out.

Knitting the back in plain stockinette seemed awfully boring, so I decided to run just the side cables up the back. The ribbing in the back is out of phase with the ribbing in the front, because the front has purls at the ends and the back has knits. On the other hand, the cables in the front center make that section about four stitches narrower than plain stockinette (which is why the back has four decreases right after the ribbing stops). This means that the cables in the back should be closer together (in stitches) than those in front, so starting them one rib inward compared to the front gets you pretty close to where they should be. With a little increase/decrease fiddling in the first row after the ribbing, I was able to make the cables up the back have the same separation as the side cables on the front so that everything meets properly at the shoulder.

I also fiddled a bit at the shoulder; so that the neckline didn’t interrupt the side cables, I decreased the purls on either side of the cables to divert them around the neck. By the time I got to the shoulder seams, I was knitting straight across the bind off rows because I had closed up all the purls.

I totally love the collar. It might not be quite as practical as a shorter, more conventional turtleneck, but the way it folds and fans out is so dramatic and lovely.

UPDATE: This won a blue ribbon at the 2011 St. Mary’s County Fair.