Circular Yoke Calculator
Even yoke shaping rounds, knit or crochet — top-down increases or bottom-up decreases.
Written in
Result
Round 1: 144 → 124 sts (−20)
[K6, K2tog] × 4, [K5, K2tog] × 16
Round 2: 124 → 104 sts (−20)
[K5, K2tog] × 4, [K4, K2tog] × 16
Round 3: 104 → 84 sts (−20)
[K4, K2tog] × 4, [K3, K2tog] × 16
These are the decrease rounds only — knit plain rounds in between to reach your yoke depth.
Bottom-up yoke: 3 shaping rounds, 144 to 84 sts.
Calculated at fibercalc.site/circular-yoke — free knitting & crochet calculators.
How to use
- Pick a direction: Top-down starts at the neck and increases out to the body; Bottom-up starts at the body and decreases in to the neck.
- Enter your body stitch count (at the underarm) and the neck stitch count — the same two numbers work for both directions.
- Enter how many shaping rounds to spread the change over — three is a common starting point.
- Read each round: the stitch count before and after and the even repeat to work, like [K3, K2tog] × 16 (or [K3, M1] × 16 for increases). Work plain rounds in between to reach your yoke depth.
Good to know
- Each shaping round is spaced evenly across the whole round using the same math as the Increase / Decrease Evenly calculator, so the yoke curves smoothly.
- Traditional circular yokes use two or three shaping rounds; more rounds give a gentler, rounder curve, fewer give a sharper shoulder line.
- In bottom-up mode a single round can never decrease more than half its stitches — if it tries, the calculator asks for more rounds.
- In crochet, a top-down increase round can’t ask for more increases than it has stitches to work from (an inc uses up a stitch); the calculator works the smaller rounds first so this only comes up on a very tight neck-to-body jump. Knit has no such limit.
FAQ
- How is a circular yoke different from a raglan?
- A raglan shapes along four seam lines; a circular yoke increases or decreases evenly all the way around with no seam lines, giving a smooth round yoke often used for colourwork. Use the Raglan calculator for the seamed version.
- Should I knit top-down or bottom-up?
- Both are common. Top-down (increasing from the neck) lets you try on as you go and adjust length easily; bottom-up (decreasing to the neck) suits traditional stranded yokes. This calculator does either — just pick the direction.
- Where do the plain rounds go?
- Between the shaping rounds. Work the yoke to your desired depth and space the shaping rounds roughly evenly up it — this calculator gives you the shaping rounds themselves, not the plain rounds in between.
- Does this work for crochet?
- Yes — switch the notation toggle to crochet terms. Do not simply read M1 as a crochet increase: a crochet inc works into a stitch that is already there, so it consumes one, while a knit M1 consumes none. The toggle accounts for that; reading the knit instructions literally would leave a top-down round short by exactly the number of increases.