Blog #52 Saddle Technique

Dear Knitter,

A knitted Saddle is a perpendicular panel across the shoulders that unites the front and back of a sweater. The way this strip sits on the wearer’s shoulder
is akin to a horse’s saddle; thus the name.

shoulder saddle on a pink aran knitted sweater

In lieu of sewing or weaving the shoulders together:
1.: If the sleeves are to be knitted down from cut armholes:stop knitting the body a few inches shy of wanted height, and cast-on sts to bridge the gap between front and back. Now work that strip back and forth, uniting it alternately to the raw sts of the f & b as you go.
2.: If the body and sleeves are joined at base of yoke, the center sleeve sts become the saddle, and are knitted onto raw f&b body sts.
A saddle can be garter-stitch, stocking-stitch, color-pattern, or a cable (see photo).
Elizabeth’s first design for this type was Newsletter #4 in 1960 (now in her book, The Opinionated Knitter).
For me, it is most often worked on a bottom-up seamless sweater or cardigan, capping the top of the yoke. But you will see patterns that begin with the saddle-panels, like Elizabeth’s Epaulat Jacket in Knit One Knit All.
Knitted saddles aren’t just for shoulders. In our most recent issue of Wool Gathering (#114, Shaded Shawl Collared Vest), Cully cleverly uses saddles to ‘fill-in’ the upper and lower sections of the back. See image below.

EZ’s Zig-Zag Jacket (in Knit One Knit All) includes saddle panels along each side of the body.
Because garter stitch is relatively ‘square’, it works very well to put a garter stitch saddle on a garter stitch garment.
When working with stocking stitch (where the stitch and row gauges are often unequal), some empirical testing may be necessary. I have found myself occasionaly working 2 body sts together with the first & last saddle stitch: possibly working (sssk, and wool fwd slip 3 tog) every so often, depending upon the discrepancy between sts and rows. For a diagonally-color-patterned saddle, you may have nearly equal sts-to rows, and can attach 1:1.
The video-technique used to attach the saddle to existing raw sts - or to picked-up sts - may also be used to unite a front to back at a side seam, and eliminate sewing. For the Round-the-Bend Jacket, I named it Sew-as-you-go.

A few other patterns that utilize saddles in one way or another. Click the blue Schoolhouse Press Patterns link below to see all of our patterns.

Schoolhouse Press Patterns

SPP 2 saddle heel(!)

saddle on heel of arch shaped knitted stocking