Valley Yarns Smokehouse Cabled Vest Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Smokehouse Cabled Vest

What Is Being Made

The Smokehouse Cabled Vest is a sleeveless waistcoat designed by Kirsten Hipsky. This garment features a classic vest silhouette with a V-neck front, worked in a prominent cable pattern throughout. The vest is available in four finished sizes ranging from 35.5" to 49" in circumference, making it suitable for a range of body types. The design combines structured shaping with decorative cabling for a sophisticated, textured finish.

Techniques Used

This vest is constructed using bottom-up seamed construction, meaning the back and front pieces are knitted separately from the cast-on edge upward, then joined together. The garment is worked flat on straight needles rather than in the round, allowing for easier cable pattern management and shaping. Key shaping techniques include:

• Armhole shaping: Achieved through bind-offs at the beginning of rows followed by decreases worked at the armhole edges
• Neck shaping: A V-neck is created by dividing the front and working left and right sides simultaneously with separate yarn balls, with decreases worked every fourth row to create the V-shape
• Seaming: Shoulder and side seams are sewn together after all pieces are complete
• Finishing details: Armhole and neck edges are finished with ribbed edging picked up from the bound-off edges and worked in the round on circular needles

Stitches Used

The Smokehouse Cabled Vest showcases a cable pattern as its primary stitch motif, worked across the body of the garment. Cable stitches are created by crossing groups of stitches over one another using a cable needle, producing raised, twisted textures that add visual interest and dimension. The pattern is maintained consistently throughout the back and front pieces until shaping begins.

Additional stitches include:

• Knit and purl stitches: Form the foundation of the cable pattern
• Decreases: K2tog (knit two together) and ssk (slip, slip, knit) are used for armhole and neck shaping, creating clean, angled edges
• Ribbing (k2, p2): Applied to the armhole and neck edges for a finished, elastic appearance that helps the openings sit smoothly against the body

Materials

The Smokehouse Cabled Vest is designed to be worked in Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky, a luxurious blend of 85% wool and 25% alpaca. This yarn is supplied in 100-gram skeins with approximately 108 yards per skein. Yardage requirements vary by size: 7 skeins for the smallest size, increasing to 11 skeins for the largest size, providing ample yardage for the cabled construction and finishing details.

The pattern calls for US size 10.5 (6.5 mm) needles for the main fabric, which are used to achieve the specified gauge of 18 stitches and 20 rows over 4 inches in the cable pattern. US size 10 (6.0 mm) circular needles in 16" or 24" lengths are used for picking up and working the ribbed edgings on the armholes and neckline. The smaller needle size creates a tighter, more elastic rib that frames the openings.