Meanwhile, back at the 'simple' pattern tweak . . .

The last time I posted about my plan to add a decorative panel to my next Wondrella cardigan, I was about to knit a second gauge swatch, this time including the cable pattern I had chosen for my embellishment.

I duly knitted it, and blocked it.

(Over) stretched out to gauge

It . . . didn't look brilliant. The yellow towel underneath was clearly visible in several places, and the sections where there was only a single purl stitch either side of the cable looked especially stretched. I soaked it and reblocked it, this time to what felt like the natural amount of stretch. The result was very close to the original stocking stitch swatch in terms of length, but way off in terms of width.

Comparing swatches of the same number of rows and stitches

The overall difference was about three stitches, but the stocking stitch sections had come out exactly to gauge. The reduction was all in the cable section. The fact that cable knits tighter is probably well-known to experienced knitters, but was news to me. So, I knitted yet another swatch, this one three stitches wider. I added an extra purl stitch to either side of the cable, and a single extra stitch to the stocking stitch section. Once blocked, 23 stitches (instead of the original 20), came out to the desired 10cm.

Second attempt - much better

This fixed one problem, but added another. The front shoulders would now be three stitches wider than the back shoulders, and as the two are joined with a three-needle bind off, the number of stitches need to be the same. The three extra stitches needed to be removed as part of the neckline shaping.

I figured that I could lose one in the initial bind off. For the others, I drew a diagram of the neckline, and marked a straight line along the edges of the 'stitches'. Then I added a second straight line, ending two squares across. I used this line as the basis for the new neckline.

Redrafting the neckline

Then, of course, I had to work out the knitting instructions for the new shaping.

Row by row instructions

Once all this was done, I could consider the positioning of the cable design on the cardigan front. First, I drew a basic schematic of the cable on tracing paper, marking which were the right side and wrong side rows.

It makes sense to me!

Next, I drew out a shortened version of the cardigan front, complete with the altered neckline. The pattern repeat for the cable is 12 rows, so I removed 60 rows from between the top of the ribbing and the start of the neckline. Again, I marked the right side and wrong side rows.

Because I wasn't going to draw out another full-size pattern like this

Once I had both drawings, it was just a case of moving the cable design around the 'front' until I found a position I was happy with and where the Rs and Ws lined up. Then I copied the cable markings onto the squared paper.

Shortened version, with ribbing and cable drawn on

Knitting experts would probably be able to tell at once whether or not this plan is workable, but I am not in that camp. So, I am going to knit a (hopefully, final) test piece starting with ribbing, then a few rows of the front and finally the neckline shaping. Yes, it's more work and yes, I am longing to just start knitting, but I reckoned that it is better to find any flaws in my plan before knitting about 90 rows of cardigan.

Working out the row-by-row knitting instructions for this latest test involved combining instructions from 1 - the original Wondrella, 2 - the new neckline, and 3 - the cable design. My brain was ready to explode by the time I was done! But I now have something to keep me occupied over Christmas (and also a vastly increased respect for designers of knitting patterns!).