Confused on number of stitches in Sirdar 5957

Screen Shot 2021-08-30 at 7.44.49 PM

I’m having issues with the repeats on this sweater. The size I’m knitting has me cast on 87 sts. For the first row, I’m counting the repeat as a total of 8 sts, which means that after subtracting the slip at the beginning and the two knits at the end, there’s 4 extra stitches left over. Am I doing the stitches wrong leaving me with 4 extra stitches? If I’m doing it correctly, what do I do with the 4 extra stitches?

As a note, this pattern does seem to work for the third size of sweater given, which requires 99 cast on stitches. Either way, please help! I am so confused…

Hello
I think maybe you counted the number of stitches in the repeat incorrectly.

87 - 3 = 84, yes, then:

K1, (yfwd doesn’t use a stitch but creates 1) = 1
S1, k1, psso (psso does not use a stitch it decreases 1) = 2
K1 = 1
K2tog, yfwd (a decrease and an increase) = 2
So 6 stitches are used during this repeat
84 ÷ 6 = 14
As the decreases are all balanced out with increases (yfwd creates a stitch) the total number of stitches at the end of the row should equal what you started with.

Row 3 adds lots of stitches so you either need to NOT count stitches this row or work out how many it should be with that number of yfwds so that you can check on your progress at the end of the row.

Row 5 has more decreases than it does increases, I have not worked out the maths but it looks very similar to the lace top I recently completed where row 5 reduced the number of stitches back down to the original count (for you 87).

My pattern told me in the notes not to count stitches at the end of row 3, perhaps yours has a similar note?
I found it better to work out how many there should be at the end of row 3 so I could check my work each row.

I hope this helps. Please do say if you need more help.

Oh, I see what I was doing wrong. I thought that doing a yfwd meant to bring the yarn to the front then knit a stitch, which meant that I was adding two extra stitches every repeat. Thank you so much for your help!!

Yes that’s it.
Do you need to watch a video on yfwd before you tackle it?
Bring the yarn between the needles as though to purl, it is forward, then keep it there while you knit the next stitch, this has th effect of wrapping a loop over the right needle. This loop is a new stitch.

I watched a couple of videos. My confusion was that I originally thought yfwd meant to bring the yarn forward and do a knit stitch, not just to bring the yarn forward. However, I think I’ve got it now. Thanks again :slight_smile:

You’re welcome