Oh lord I just can not figure this thing out! I’m not an experienced knitter, only scarves and one jumper till now. I have the left and right front done and the back, i’m am now at the section labelled HOOD and I just can’t figure it out, I have about a week before the baby is born, can anyone help me out? It involves picking up stitches which I have never done so i’m not sure what to pick up, if I knit it the way I imagine I don’t think there will be a neck hole and I can’t understand how it somehow turns into a hood…
I can always post pics if that helps. I am living in Belgium so none of the knitters I know can follow the English pattern!
Any help much much appreciated I hope I can get it done in time!
If you don’t belong to Ravelry this might be a good time to join. It is free and I think you’d get good help there. I don’t have this pattern, but maybe someone here does. On Ravelry I see over 300 people have made this coat and you can read their notes and ask questions directly to folks who have made it if you want to.
If you don’t want to go that route, can you give the hood part of the pattern, or at least the row where you begin the hood? I looked on Ravelry and saw pictures of the coat (very cute) and see that a lot of people left the stitches live at the top of the body pieces and used them instead of picking up stitches. It sounds like to do that you may have to increase up to the number called for for the hood. If you want to pick up stitches, it sounds like you need to pick up stitches across the top of each of the body pieces, and use them to make the rather oversized hood. Does it tell you to sew the body together before picking up stitches for the hood? It seems like it should.
There is a video here about picking up stitches. It is not real hard, it is kind of like knitting into the edge, pulling each new loop up and onto your needle. The place you put the needle for knitting up the loops is close to the edge, but not right at the edge (there will be a bit of a seam formed). You can experiment with exact placement. The way it looks as you work it is the way it will look when it is done. If it doesn’t look right you can take out a few or all of the new loops and try again, you want to achieve a smooth, nice looking line.
I don’t know the pattern, but if you post a couple lines of the pattern where you are having trouble we can probably help. Here’s a video that shows picking up stitches so it may help, too.
Posting a link to the pattern is also helpful when asking questions. Even if it’s from a book a picture like in the link below can be helpful. Here’s the link for a picture of it for anyone who can help -
Don’t post the entire pattern though…just a few lines of the problem area.
It looks like you pick up the sts around the neck opening, but do not join to work in the round. So you begin at one side of the neck with the RS facing you, pick up sts on the side, then across the neck (if there’s sts on a holder there, just knit them) then pick up the sts on the other side of the neck.
Posting just a couple rows of a pattern is okay when you need to ask for help.
How adorable! It looks like you may have some live sts that were held on stitch holders from the left and right fronts. You’ll put the sts from one front onto a working needle, pick up sts (using the video referred to above) around the neck and then knit the sts from the other front. Knit back and forth on those sts for however many rows the pattern says and then knit halfway along the sts on the needle and join the two halves together with a 3 needle bind off (there’s a video for that, too). Now it will look like a hood. Lots of new things to learn that will come in very handy on future projects.
Do post a few lines for the hood and we can be more specific.
I just watched the video for picking up stitches, I had no idea you could literally choose whichever hole you wanted or that it was best to go for two strands, I would of picked up one, good job I asked here first!!
I hope I can get it done in time!