Comfort Zone Modified for light Sport-weight Yarn - First Try:

• CO 92st on US 6 needles - using the thin balls of cashmere held double - and work twisted rib in round for 3” or ~21R. (Note: You used about 15g of this for 21R. It occurs to me that the reason that these 2 balls were underweight isn’t because of yardage but because the gauge of the yarn is unusually thin. Compared with the other 4 balls I bought, this yarn looks lace-weight while the other balls look fingering-weight. Doesn’t thrill given that this yarn is supposed to knit up at DK-weight and there is no way that it will…)

• Switch to US 7 needle and the thicker balls of yarn to knit single- strand, and set up for body. 9st shoulders / 37 front / 9 shoulders / 37 back = 92st. Note: I considered working 11st for shoulders given the width of this ribbing at smaller gauge, to maintain the proportions of the original design, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

• Within 10” of vertical depth, get to ~248st or ~50” full circumference. To do this:

• Work 76 rounds at 7.5R/1” vertical gauge to get to max circumference in 10”.

• At first I considered working every other round is an increase round until the final 4 rounds (73-76 inclusive), which would all be increase rounds. Full circ stitch counts would be 9 / 115 / 9 / 115 = 248st.

• Then it occurred to me that I might want to front load those 4 rounds given that I was experimenting / working a pattern designed for aran-weight yarn in (effectively) sport-weight yarn. My gauge was 20st per 4” on US6 (vs 15st on recommended US10.5). So that’s what I opted to do. Update: As so often happens, my gauge changed over the course of this knit. So I didn’t need to do as many increases as anticipated given that, as of 103st on each side, I was pretty close to 50” of circ. I did 2 more increase rounds to get to 107st on each side. In the end this produced more circ than required.

• At full circumference, knitted to 13” from base of neckline (~3” or ~23R) i.e. until the length was at the elbow bend. Next up was to switch back to US6 needle to begin twisted ribbing segments on front and back body. Update: So I knitted till I used up the 100g of the “thicker” 4 balls and the dimensions are 14” from base of neckline to where the ribbing will start and 53” of full circumference. Here’s the thing - I didn’t like the fabric. It was too open so I ripped back to the beginning of the body to use a US6 on that segment of the knit also (doing additional increases to get to desired width at desired depth).

Comfort Zone Modified for Light Sport-weight Yarn - Second Try:

• After ripping out the body knitted on US 7, I kept the original ribbed neck (retained from version 1), and continued to work, single-strand, on a US6 (same needle size as the one I used to knit the double-stranded / thinner yarn turtleneck). I much prefer the fabric at this gauge.

• Front-loaded 5 increases given that the gauge was snugger and confirmed that it was at the same width as the original finished version of this garment. (It was.) 112st

• Worked incs every other round (per pattern) until I got to max circ, by 10” of depth. (119st - you need an odd number by the time you set up the ribbing).

• Given yarn limitations, aim to make the back body ribbing ~3.75” (~27R) and the front body ribbing ~2.75” (~20R) - at minimum. Regardless, just make sure that the front ribbing is about 75% of the length of the back ribbing, to maintain proportion. Use the thinner yarn held double.

• I managed to finish this with NO yarn left. (I even had to use a small remnant of the “thicker” yarn to do half of the bind off. I did re-block this in water for 30 min before pinning out but I don’t think this yarn loves being re-knit (and I’ve now done it 3x between this and a previous project). For anyone planning to use this yarn (and I cannot recommend it), aim not to rip it back, at least after blocking. Since the yarn is so gossamer fine and (it would seem) carded for volume, it’s not the kind that optimally plumps back up.

• I am pleased to have figured out how to knit this pattern at multiple gauges but I will say that I think it suits a worsted-weight yarn best, or a gauge of about 18st per 4”. Note this gauge is smaller the gauge recommended in the pattern). That gives it a bit of gravity (unlike this extremely light-weight cashmere) while not being overly heavy. For this reason, my first version, knitted in Woolfolk Far (an awesome, light-weight for gauge, if pilly yarn) continues to be my fave. There’s nothing delicate about it but it’s as soft as this cashmere and if I de-pill it occasionally, it looks brand new. I’m sure this would also knit up very nicely in Sunday Morning DK - which would have great stitch defn, recovery and warmth. Update - The lightness of this cashmere version is increasingly appealing. So warm while weighing next to nothing. Ya, that’s why everyone loves cashmere. It’s still gonna be a long time before I try Cardiff Cashmere again.

Desired Post-blocked Measurements:
Neck circumference: 8”
Neck depth: 3” max
Full circumference (by 10” below base of neck): 50” - 51”
Depth to full circ: 10” max
Depth to rib-split (at elbow): 13” (3 inches after full circ)
Depth of back body ribbing: 4.25” (presuming you have enough yarn)
Depth of front body ribbing: 3” (presuming you have enough yarn). Make this about 75% of the depth of the back ribbing to optimize proportion.
Back body length from base of neck: ~15.5” - 17”
Front body length from base of neck: 14.25” - 15.75”

Gauge Swatch:

This is how I’ve determined to use up the cashmere given that 2 of the 6 balls I purchased were a totally different gauge than the rest of the yarn - lace-weight vs the fingering-sport weight that the yarn actually should be. Note also that the yarn company indicates (inaccurately) that this yarn is DK-weight - but no one who’s used it appears to agree.

Knit a swatch with a) the thinner version of the yarn held double (for collar) and b) one strand held single (for body).

Twisted Rib (Double Stranded, thinner balls of yarn):

US6 Preblocked: 24st and 32R in 4” (small swatch)
US6 Postblocked: 23 and 28R in 4”
US7 Preblocked: 21st and 24R in 4” (recheck in book)
US7 Postblocked: 21st and 24R in 4”

Stockinette (Single Stranded):

US6 Preblocked: 21.5st and 32R in 4” (small swatch)
US6 Postblocked: 20st and 32R in 4”
US7 Preblocked: 20.5st and 30R in 4”
US7 Postblocked: 20st and 30R in 4”

Keep in mind that the yarn you swatched with was pre-blocked on another project so that may be why it has maintained its pre-blocked dimensions.

Note that I managed to get one of these ponchos (Version 3) out of 412 yards of worsted weight yarn on US8 body / US7 rib and that included the neckband. This time, over and above the neckband, I’ll have ~480 yards to work with. Hopefully, though this is slimmer yarn, I will get to the same depth as I was able to with that worsted version. My average vertical gauge is 1st per inch shorter with this yarn than with the Version 3’s worsted-weight alpaca.