Suitable for intermediate knitters, this shrug features a cable panel down the centre back, with stitches picked up either side and worked flat in a cable and lace rib design down to the ribbed cuffs which are worked in the round and which sit at the elbow. Further stitches are then picked up for a ribbed edging around the neckline. It is worked as a rectangle with cuffs, and with virtually no shaping required.

The stitch design produces quite a stretchy fabric, so the pattern gives instructions for one size which will fit a 34-42 inch (86-106 cm) bust, but it is quite easy to adjust the size by adding or omitting repeats of the cable and lace rib. The finished size as written is 100cm wide (cuff to cuff) and 58cm deep neck to hem.

My sample used 170g/680m of Blue Faced Leicester 4-ply - a standard 400m/100g. 200g/800m should allow enough yarn to work an extra repeat on either side of the cable panel, and therefore increase the width by approximately 10cm. Increasing the width further is likely to require extra yarn.

It’s also possible to make the shrug a little tighter fitting by adding buttons to increase the length of the sleeve seams - instructions for this are included in the pattern.