I’ve just begun knitting again after a very very long break, and I’m probably being a little too ambitious in my second project, but it started off so well! And now I’m stumped, and I’m hoping someone can help.
I’m making a baby cardigan, so I’ve 51 sts, and I’ve knitted 6 rows and Moss st 4 rows, and now I have to make eyelets as follows:
Moss st 1, yrn, p2tog, * moss st 4, yrn, p2tog; rep from * to last 0 st
Cont in moss st until back measures 12cm from cast-on edge, ending with ws row.
I’ve interpreted this as doing one moss st, so a purl, then keeping the yarn forward, purl 2 sts together, and then moss st 4, move the yarn to the front, purl 2 together, and repeat. But then I ended up with 40 (ish) sts, and there’s no mention of increasing the sts back to 51. And the reason why I’m questioning my interpretation is that the next instructions are as follows:
You want to make eyelets, which will be evenly spaced holes all along this row. Instructions say:
Moss st 1, yrn, p2tog, * moss st 4, yrn, p2tog; rep from * to last 0 st.
You say:
I’ve interpreted this as doing one moss st, so a purl, then keeping the yarn forward, purl 2 sts together, and then moss st 4,
Moss stitch can mean different things sometimes but I think they all involve changes from knit to purl. This row could be k1, p1 (or p1, k1), or maybe k2, p2 (p2, k2) all the way across. You indicate that you need to purl the first stitch. That is fine, if that is what the next stitch needs to be, but if you only keep the yarn in the front to p2tog for the next action, you have not made a yarn over which is what a yrn is.
Since the last thing you did was purl, you have the yarn in front, now take the yarn over the top of the right needle and under it until it is in the front again, then p2tog. You will have an extra strand of yarn across the right hand needle that will make the eyelet. Each time you have a yrn you need to do what it takes to make sure you have an extra strand like that. We call them all yarn overs (yo) in USA instructions, but they have other names in other instructions. A yarn over is made a little differently between 2 knit sts, 2 purl sts, from a knit to a purl, etc. Here is a link to an article about yarn overs in all different situations. Read this and you should understand yarn overs better. LINK
You should end up with the same number of stitches as you started with. Each yrn makes an extra st and each p2tog gets rid of a stitch to keep the st count even.
To do a ‘yrn’ on the purl side you need to wrap it around the needle to the back and then through the needle tips to the front again. They’re the same as YOs, but not the same as ‘yf’ which is a YO between [I]knit[/I] sts.
Brilliant, that’s exactly where I was going wrong. I’ve just redone the row following your instructions and I’ve ended up with 51 sts and eyelets. Thanks so much.
