Decreasing in pattern

Hello,

I’m currently working on the community cardigan by Alicia Plummer and I have a question regarding the decreasing on the sleeves.

The pattern repeat is two rounds of k2, p2 followed by two knit rounds. So on a knit round you decrease like this k1, k2tog, knit in pattern to last three stitches, ssk, k1. My question is when I go to knit the k2, p2 rounds after decreasing what pattern do I keep the first and last sts in?

Welcome to the forum!

If your k2p2 rounds begin with k2,p2 then the decrease round is k1, knit together the next knit and the following purl. That means that next k2p2 round would now begin with k2, p1 and then proceed to k2,p2 and so on.
If you are keeping the first the last stitches as k1 (a kind of “seam”), then the row begins with the k1 stitch, k1, p2,k2,p2 and continues.

One of the best ways to work this is to make the decrease and then check the pattern in the rows below to make sure you’re continuing in pattern even if you have to take into account the pattern disruption caused by the decreases.
I’m assuming that these sleeves are indeed knit in the round as you indicate.

Thank you for your response! With a little tinkering I think I figured it out! Hopefully they will knit up smoothly now that I’ve established the pattern while decreasing.

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