Confusing Raglan Armhole Instructions

HI there,
I’m a completely new knitter so apologies in advance if this is a silly question.

I’m shaping raglan armholes for a baby sweater.

I start with 50 stitches on the needle. Then I follow:

K3, K2tog, K to last 5 st, sl 1, K1, psso, K3. (so, if I’m understanding righ, a decrease at each end, resulting in 48 stitches)

Then my pattern states:

Working all raglan armhole decreases as set by the last row, decrease 1 stitch at each end of 4th and 2[3:3:4] foll 4th rows, then on foll 11 [10:11:10] alt rows. 16 [18:18:20] sts.

I’m doing the third size, second option in brackets, and I’m understanding this as decreasing from 48 stitches on the needle to 18 stitches, but I don’t understand how many stitches I decrease by and on which rows. Do I do no decreases for three rows and then decrease 1 stitch each side, and then no decreases for three rows and then decrease three stitches each side, and then what?

Can anyone help me understand?

Hello

No knitting question is silly. It’s great you are learning a new skill and making a sweater.

You’ve pretty much got it on the instruction.
If the next row is called row 1 then you do, as you said, no decreases on rows 1, 2, 3, then decrease on row 4 (46 stitches).
Then it says the 3 following 4th rows, this is repeating what you just did 3 times so decreases are on rows 8, 12, 16 (40 stitches).
Then on following 11 alternate rows. Alternate is every other row so no decreases, decreases, no decreases, decreases. The rows are 18, 30, 22, 24 and so on until you have done it 11 times (18 stitches).

As you can see, you were pretty much there with understanding the pattern.

Feel free to ask questions, there’s lots of help here. I’ve been a regular on this site since I found it a year ago.

We’d love to see your finished sweater when you reach then end too!

Thanks so much-it worked!

I’ll post an update when it’s finished :slight_smile:

Great!
Glad it worked out.
Sorry about the typo in the row number which I just spotted… but I am sure you did it right.

Looking forward to seeing the finished sweater.