Dissent Pullover Mods: Yoke Length

Kelsey wearing Dissent Pullover in Quince & Co. Finch. Size 44.25”/112.5 with 2.25”6 cm of positive ease. She’s seen from above playing the piano.

How to get a perfect Dissent yoke

I got an email from a knitter recently who struggles to get these kinds of yokes to look right on her because the colourwork usually ends up finishing up directly at nipple-level, which can be a pretty awkward look. If that’s your situation, I hear you! And the good news is that changing where the colourwork ends on Dissent is a really easy modification to do. Even if you want to change the overall look of the yoke by ending the colourwork higher on your shoulders, or making it go almost all the way down to the armholes, you can definitely make that change to the pattern in your own project. You can have as many or as few plain, un-patterned rounds as you want before splitting for the armholes. This mod is also helpful if your row gauge in the colourwork isn’t exactly what’s called for in the pattern.

I’m going to be referring to Charts A, B, and C in brackets like this, A(B, C) so you know which numbers refer to your size.

If you check out the charts, you’ll notice that there are sections that repeat vertically. For example, the pattern in Rounds 7-12 is worked 2(3, 4) times total and the pattern in Rounds 18-23(24-29, 30-35) is worked 3(3, 4) times. You can add or subtract length in the yoke by working more or fewer of those repeating sections before finishing up with the last eleven rounds of the colourwork, Rounds 36-46(42-52, 54-64).

I’m going to simplify and just pick a section so that you can just follow instructions.

1. Work as directed through Round 31(31, 43) of the chart.

2. Try on your sweater to see where the colour work is at and consider where you’d like it to end. Check your row gauge. Keeping in mind that you’ll need to work eleven additional rounds to finish up the colourwork, decide if you want more or fewer pattern repeats.

3. If you’re ready to finish up, you can proceed to the last eleven rounds of the chart. If you want more colourwork, keep following the chart. If you want more colour work than is given in the pattern, you can repeat Rounds 18-23(24-29, 30-35) as many times as you want, being careful that you’ll be done with the colour work before it’s time for you to split for the Body and Sleeves, and remembering that you’ll need to do a plain round and an increase round before you split.

4. Once you’ve finished the colourwork, try on your yoke again to make sure you like where it’s hitting on your body. Then work plain until you’ve got the yoke depth given in the pattern or that you want.

Body & Sleeves

You can make similar decisions for the length of your Body and Sleeves. Try on and make adjustments so you get the lengths that suit your body and your style! You could even make the ribbed cuffs extra long for a cozy look. Don’t be afraid to make it your own!