Unit 2 Lesson1

Anatomy of the Circular Yoke

Design and Creation of Seamless

Knitwear with Circular Needles
with Carmen García de Mora

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Welcome!
Get your circular needles ready! We’re going to get
started in the beautiful world of the yoke, which is full
of possibilities.

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 introduction
A circular yoke grows in a radial way around the neck and shoulders until it reaches the edges of the chest and sleeves, to
which the armhole stitches are added (seen below in orange). The outline of the yoke may have a repeated design created
from lace stitch, combinations of color, or textures that combine knit and purl stitches.

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 garment
This type of garment is made of the
following parts:
Neck

Shoulders

Yoke

Armhole Armhole

Sleeve Sleeve

Body

Cuff Cuff

yoke
The number of sections
throughout the yoke should be
even so that the patterns in the
garment are symmetrical from
right to left, as well as from front Back
to back.

Front

yoke section

Phase 1 1/2 As a general rule, the height

of each phase is the same.

Yoke section (Note: there may be

exceptions when we make a
wider collar.)
Phase 2 1/2

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 adapting to the body
Dividing the yoke into two phases allows us to adapt our
garment to the different structures and proportions of each
body, both for narrower shoulders and larger chest (a) and
broader shoulders with a smaller chest (b).

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 number of sections
When choosing the number of sections for your yoke, you’ll need to remember the size of the design you’d like to include.
The thickness of your yarn may also affect that decision, given that the thicker the yarn, the fewer stitches you’ll make in each
section resulting in a smaller design.

In the examples seen below, we can see yokes with different numbers of sections (6, 8, 12, and 16). As we can see:
With fewer sections, you have more area for your design and more polygonal yokes.
With more sections, you have less are for your design and more circular yokes.
For the same design or drawing with thicker yarn, you’ll need fewer sections.

My recommendation is that for thick yarn or a wide design, go for a yoke with six sections.
Remember that the number of sections throughout the yoke should be even so that the patterns in the garment are
symmetrical from right to left, as well as from front to back.

6 sections

8 sections

12 sections

16 sections

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 two paths to your yoke

OPTION A
Design your drawing/texture based on the number of sections around your yoke.

1 · Choose the number of sections for your yoke.

2 · From the sample, measurements, and number of sections, calculate the stitches for each section (number of stitches for the

OPTION B
Decide on the number of sections based on your drawing/texture.

We’ll see both options more in depth throughout the course.

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 let’s go
To the next lesson.

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