Customizing Wildhorse’s collar

What could be cozier than an enormous shawl collar knit in garter stitch?

The star of Wildhorse is its wonderfully squishy shawl collar. It is enormous, cozy, and perfect for snuggling into on a cold day.

But what if you don’t like the size of it? What if you want it larger? Or smaller?

You can easily modify the size of the collar to suit your preference.

The pattern already includes instructions for a smaller collar if you just want to follow instructions and not go off-road. But it is easy enough to adjust the collar if you are willing to do a tiny bit of figuring things out yourself.

As you knit the shawl collar, you will notice that the depth of the shawl collar at the back neck entirely depends upon how many times you repeat SHORT ROW 2. For the smaller collar size, you repeat it fourteen times. For the larger (and in my opinion, totally glorious) size, you repeat SHORT ROW 2 twenty-nine times. The smaller collar measures 5 inches / 12.5 cm unfolded at the back neck. The larger one measures 8.75 inches / 22 cm unfolded at the back neck. Now note that these are the unfolded measurements. When you fold the collar over, the final depth of the shawl collar at the back neck will be half this amount.

The shawl collar folds over on itself at the back neck - the total depth of the collar unfolded is twice the finished depth it will have.

 The way to customize the shawl collar’s depth is to change the number of times you repeat SHORT ROW 2. More repeats lead to a deeper shawl collar. Fewer repeats lead to a smaller one. How much deeper or smaller depends entirely on your garter stitch row gauge. This brings us to some math that you may or may not feel like doing. A much easier way to figure out exactly how deep the shawl collar will be is to lay it out flat, measure it at the back neck (it’s deepest point) and add 2 inches / 5 cm to that measurement. Then divide that number in half to come to the final shawl collar depth.

 There will be a small bit of depth lost from the fold. And you may also lose or gain depth if your yarn grows or shrinks upon blocking. But that quick method should get you very close. It also has the advantage of being very easy to do.

See where the shawl collar begins to fold over on the front? Consider where you want your fold to start.

 If you do decide to make a deeper shawl collar, remember that you will be making the bottom of it fall below the bottom of the V-neck. For it to fold over nicely in the front, I like to have the bottom of the short row turns (aka repeats of SHORT ROW 2) end at roughly the same level as the bottom of the V-neck. It is a natural place for the collar to fold over, and looks very nice.

 Making the shawl collar deeper means that the fold will begin lower. This is not necessarily a “bad” look, but it will look different from the Wildhorse I made. Before proceeding with your larger collar, give a few minutes of thought to where you want the bottom / fold of the shawl collar to land.

 Hopefully this helps you out if you are considering changing the size of your Wildhorse’s collar. And if you still need the pattern you can find it here.

Happy knitting!