“With Aran sweaters so ubiquitous in recent decades, it is difficult to imagine that the sweater shown here was, in 1957, the very first Aran pattern commercially published in the United States….1857 would be more believable.

The sweater was knitted by Elizabeth Zimmermann from instructions she had received from Vogue Knitting….

If you wish to convert this back-and-forth design to a drop-shoulder circular sweater, you will have the advantage -- with the front side always facing you -- of being able to ‘read’ your knitting and see where the traveling stitches are going and when it is time to cable again (and no seams to sew up). Multiple your gauge times the desired circumference to find the total number of body stitches you need. Then plot your design by placing the two main motifs (diamonds and fishbone cables) where you want them on a bird’s-eye view of the sweater. How many stitches did that take? Use up the leftover stitches between the motifs with a simple “filler.” For instance, P1, K1b, P1, K1b, P1 makes a pretty little divider and uses up five stitches (or only three if you eliminate the final K1b, P1). Stick these units around the garment, nicely balanced, then count it all up and see how close you are to your desired number of stitches. Add or subtract stitches where necessary. “

Errata: PATTERN #22
The cables on row 3 of chart II should be worked on row 4.