I've been thinking that a lighter weight version of Clio might be a good addition to my wardrobe. Both samples from the pattern will be off traveling for a while, and I really want one to wear—so come January 1st, I'll be casting on for a new Clio out of some lovely Sincere Sheep Cormo Sport.
The pale grey swatches above are in the new yarn. Okay, yes, they are on the skimpy side in terms of length, but since I've already knit the sweater twice, they are big enough for me to know what the fabric will be like. If you are knitting Clio for the first time, I'd encourage you to work your swatches a bit longer so that you can really understand the fabric.
Although Cormo Sport is lighter and skinnier than Quince and Co Phoebe, the yarn the pattern samples were knit in, I’ve decided to stick with the US 8 [5 mm] needles called for in the pattern. Cormo fiber has a lot of bounce to it, and I want my new Clio to drape like the original, so a more open, airy fabric will help with that. Worked on US 8s, the fabric has the movement I’m looking for, and the stitch definition is still acceptable.
Even using the same size needles, my stitch and row gauge are tighter than the pattern's stated gauge, so I’ll be making a gauge adjustment. With Clio, it’s pretty easy to do this, as all the parts of the design scale nicely. The one element that might suffer at too large or too small a gauge is the cable that runs from shoulder to cuff, but I'm happy with how this looks in my swatch.
Some simple gauge math
To estimate the finished garment size I'll wind up with working at this new gauge, I divided the pattern’s stitch gauge by my cormo stitch gauge, and got .96. I did this for both gauges listed in the pattern, just to confirm the number I'd gotten.
This means that if I knit my chosen pattern size, the 47" [119.5] bust circumference, I'll wind up with a garment that is 96% of that size, or 45" [114.5 cm]. This might actually be okay. Since the fabric is a bit finer than the original, I might not need as much positive ease in this new one. If I go up a pattern size, to the 50" [127 cm] circumference and multiply that by .96, I get 48" [122 cm]. This might also be okay. An extra inch on the full circumference of garment with this much positive ease should still be fine.
A small design choice
What I'm actually going to do is to use the numbers from the 47" [119.5] size, but when the time comes to cast on stitches for the neckline, I'm going to add four stitches to each woven lattice panel, front and back. These extra stitches will make the neckline slightly wider, which I'm happy about. If I wanted a narrower neckline, I could do the opposite, following the cast-on numbers for the larger size, but eliminating two stitches from each woven lattice panel.
Row gauge adjustments
That takes care of the stitch gauge, and the horizontal measurements. For the row gauge and vertical measurements I'm simply going to work to the depths given in the pattern for my desired 47" [119.5] size. This means that for the cabled shoulder pieces—and every other part of the garment that has a depth measurement—I'll ignore the pattern's references to the number of rows to work, and just check the depths with my ruler as I go. I should note that when I swatched, I measured my swatches before and after blocking so I'd know if they changed length in the process.
One of the things that makes the modern drop-shoulder style look intentional is that although the body may be oversized, the sleeves fit closely at the upper arm—so I'll pay particular attention to the armhole depths as I work the upper bodice. For all the rest, I can simply try the sweater on, and make decisions about the body or sleeve lengths on the fly.
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I’m excited about my sport-weight Clio. I think the design would be gorgeous in fingering weight yarn, and worsted weight Clio could work too. Bear in mind that the design really benefits from having a little drape. This can come from the fiber—Phoebe’s extra-fine merino has superb drape—or it can be encouraged, as I am doing here with the Cormo Sport, by working a bouncier yarn at a looser gauge.
If you’d like to try changing gauge on Clio, swatch with your chosen yarn until you get a fabric that you like, then use the simple math above to help calculate the size to cast on.
Clio-along
Since for once I'll be doing some knitting that's not secret, I've decided to host a little knit-along for Clio in my Ravelry group. The KAL starts January 1, and will run through March 15. You're welcome to join in!