Big Cable Coat

Big Cable Coat by Vladimir Teriokhin
Vogue Knitting Magazine ~ Holiday Issue 2006

I want to make this coat, but am disappointed that the directions are only for size small/medium, which seems to be more medium than small:

*lower edge (closed) 52”
*bust (closed) 40”
*length 38½”
*upper arm 13”

I think these measurements are going to be a little wide for me. I want to use a different yarn and a different cable pattern anyway, so it looks like the original pattern will just be a guideline.

I’ve decided that to convert the pattern, I need to use 87.5% of all vertical measurements.

I have a stash of Rowan’s Polar yarn in Fizzle that I’m going to use, and in knitting up the swatch, I’m thinking that 10 skeins may not be enough. The swatch used an entire skein. This yarn is discontinued, but there do seem to be some skeins left out there on the web for purchase.

Any hizzle, I knit a swatch 56 sts by 58 rows. It’s pretty big:

I started to make the gigantic cables specified in the pattern, but with the Polar, the cables just seemed ridiculously cumbersome. So, I’m using smaller cables – literally half the size. They are 10 sts wide, crossing every 12th row, with 4 sts between each cable.

Here’s my gauge, using size 11 needles:

46 sts = 10.5” 41 rows = 9.5”
17.5 sts = 4” 17.25 rows = 4”
4.38 sts = 1” 4.32 rows = 1”

Here are two other versions of this coat, one made by Disco Princess and featured on www.craftster.org and the other by Alexander McQueen, virtually identical to the one in VK(on model):

I’m noticing that the shaping is made by eliminating four cables entirely – two on the front and two on the back. I’m not sure if Disco Princess’s coat is made from the VK pattern, but I think it may be.