I am a knitting a cardigan sweater on circular needles and have done fine up to now…I have 96 stitches on my needles with 29 on each end being for the sleeves of the sweater and the stitches between the sleeve stitches being for the back of the sweater. Now I have to do this:
"K29 sleeve sts, pattern across rem sts.
P29, pattern across back sts, p29.
BO 29 sts at beg of next two rows. Cont in established pattern on Back sts only for 28 more rows."
I am confused with the last paragraph. If I bind off 29 stitches when beginning that row, that still leaves me with 67 stitches on my left needle I get to the end of the row. What do I with the 67 stitches?
The pattern says to bind off 29 stitches at the beginning of the next 2 rows. So you would bind off…work to the end of that row, then starting the next row, bind off 29 again and work to the end of the row. You’ve now bound off your sleeves (I think) and are now just working the back of the sweater.
Hope this helps…Mary
Thank you for your reply, but I still don’t know what stitches to use to work to the end of the row after binding off at the beginning of the rows. It’s the wording of the pattern I find unclear. Do I knit, purl, or do the full stitch pattern (a mix of knit, purl, ssk, k2tog, yo, etc.). Here is the wording of the pattern again:
"K29 sleeve sts, pattern across rem sts.
P29, pattern across back sts, p29.
BO 29 sts at beg of next two rows. Cont in established pattern on Back sts only for 28 more rows."
The phrase just says to bind off 29 stitches at the beginning of each of the next two rows without saying what stitches I should use to work the remaining non-bound-off stitches in the rows.
(well, assuming it starts with pattern row 1; if not, the back would use row whatever / w+1 / w+2 / etc)
Basically, the stitches you bind off are the ones that you were just doing stockinette on (knitting one row and purling on the other); the pattern area isn’t affected. So the non-bound-off stitches are pattern stitches.
You’ve been knitting some sort of stitch pattern till now (ribbing or whatever). So now you k 29 sts, then work in the stitch pattern over the remaining sts on that row. Next row, p29 sts, work in st pattern on the back stitches only and p the last 29. Next row, BO 29 sts, work in pattern on the back sts again, and k the last 29. Next row, BO 29 sts and you only have the back stitches left, work them in the stitch pattern for another 28 rows.
Thank you all again for your help, but I have continuing problems with these pattern instructions. My “established pattern” consists of four rows–a knit row, a purl row, then a row of different stitch types (ssk, k2tog, yo) that use 19 stitches from my left needle that I repeat until all the stitches on the row are worked. The fourth row is another knit row. Here is the repeating pattern:
If I follow literally the confusing portion of the pattern instructions cited in my two previous question posts, I knit a row, then I purl a row, then for the third row I bind off my first 29 stitches on my row to have 67 stitches left on my left needle and then do Row 3 of my pattern. 67 doesn’t divide evenly by 19! That can’t be right!
Actually, rereading your responses, I think I understand now. No need to respond to my last plea for help. Thank you all, and thank you for providing this help for us beginners. :woot:
Yeah, you just do the back stitches for whatever pattern row you happen to be on at the time. I’m answering in case someone else reading this might want to know too.
