My hooded vest pattern calls for picking up and knitting along the armhole and then knitting a ribbed band. The armhole dimension is 19 inches which is about an inch bigger than the pattern. My size calls for picking up 86 stitches. Well, I have picked up 80 stitches so far and there’s about 5 more inches of the armhole left. I am averaging about 5.5 stiches picked up per inch. So, I’ll probably end up with 25 more stitches. I will have way more stitches for the armband than the pattern calls for. The picked up stitches look neat and even so maybe this doesn’t matter? I would appreciate some advice. Thanks.
Adding band to armhole problem
You don’t pick up a stitch for every edge st you pick up from, the ratio is more pickup 3 for every 4 or 5 for every 6. Is 5.5 sts/inch the gauge you got on the vest or the ribbing of it? If everything looks good then it’s okay to pick up more than the pattern says. If it’s knit in 1x1 ribbing, you just need an even number to make it come out right.
Thanks for replying. The 5.5 stitches are the number I have picked up per inch of the armhole, not the gauge. If I pick up for every 3 or 4 stitches, won’t there be some gaps between the newly picked up stitches?
They’re not noticeable, though you can try 5 for every 6. The reason is you’re picking up [I]sts[/I] at the edge of [I]rows[/I]. They don’t generally have the same gauge; if you notice, the gauge on a pattern is usually 5 sts/6 rows per inch or whatever. If you’re using smaller needles to pick up and intend to knit the armband on them, you’ll be fine, but if you’re picking up and will knit with the same size needles you knit the vest with, you may find that you have a ruffled armband.