Drops Pattern Assistance - PLEASE, it's been a nightmare!

#1

I’ve been working on this top and the wording has been so hard to understand. Finally, I get to the end and the shoulder is higher than the scoop neckline, the directions say to (now this is putting all of the stitches back on circular needle) knit but if you do as the pattern says, the shoulder curls over to meet that neckline. What am I doing wrong here? Thank you!

PATTERN INSTRUCTIONS:
READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING SECTION BEFORE CONTINUING!
Work stockinette st back and forth on needle from mid front, AT THE SAME TIME slip 1 st on stitch holder each side towards mid front at the end of every row a total of 9-10-11-13-14-15 times (= 46-50-54-60-64-68 sts in total on stitch holder). AT THE SAME TIME when piece measures 69-71-73-75-77-79 cm / 27 1/8"-28"-28 3/4"-29½"-30 3/8"-31" slip 40-44-48-54-58-62 sts mid back on a stitch holder and complete each side separately. Now slip1 st at the end of every row towards back piece on stitch holder until there are 46-50-54-60-64-68 sts on stitch holder at the front and the back. There are now 54-58-66-70-80-88 sts left on needle, slip these sts on a new stitch holder. Work the other side in the same way.

NECKLINE:
Work all sts from stitch holders on the same circular needle size 4 mm / US 6, AT THE SAME TIME pick up 1 st between each time a st was slipped on stitch holder all the way round and K this st tog with next st (do this to avoid a hole in transition) = 200-216-240-260-288-312 sts. Insert a marker mid back – ROUND NOW BEG HERE!
Work next round as follows:

#2

You’re doing short rows, where you don’t work all the way across a full row. This is done to shape the back of the neck and is the part that’s “AT THE SAME TIME slip 1 st on stitch holder each side towards mid front at the end of every row a total of 9-10-11-13-14-15 times” and the rest of the instructions tell how to slip the sts from the holder back onto the rest of them. The shoulder is supposed to be higher than the neckline.

To work the neckline, as you work the sts on the holder, also pick up a st between the sl sts and knit tog (like k2tog) with the next st.

#3

Here’s a pic of what’s happened, maybe that will help. I did as you responded, had 4 total sections that were worked on, then the directions say to add those sections onto the circular needle, knitting two stitches together on the added in stitches. Which I did, however, when you put this back together on the circular, that shoulder is higher and to knit the first neck stitch, it bends that shoulder, as you’ll see in the photo. THANK YOU!

#4

Aren’t you supposed to pick up sts between the shoulder and the slip sts along the neckline? What’s the pattern number or a link to it? I’d like to see a picture.

#5

http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift_nye.php (here’s the link for the page, this top is W-397 3/4 of the way down. Thank you again for the assistance.

#6

Here’s the direct link…

I’ll have to look at it a bit, and I’m being kicked off the computer for a couple hours. See ya later…

#7

KelseyKaye, did you ever figure out what was going wrong for you here? I spent some time analyzing the pattern and here is what I learned. You knit this in the round on a circular needle to the armholes (dec 10 each underarm) and then you knit the sleeves flat. At the yoke you join the pieces together by slipping a sleeve onto the needle at each underarm, so that the body and sleeve stitches are all on one needle. (I know you know all this but it helps me to be able to go over the whole pattern, for my benefit.)

Then you knit in the round until you have the length given (smallest size to 23 1/4"). (I’m going to use the numbers for the smallest size each time since I don’t don’t which size you are making. Change all numbers to what matches your size) At that point you put 28 stitches at the center of the front onto a holder. Now you work flat, back and forth from one side of the stitches you placed on the holder to the other side (so you will be working on all the stitches of body and sleeves except the front neck stitches) and slip another stitch onto the holder from each side of the neck every row 9 times, so that you have 46 stitches on the holder for the front neck opening.

At whatever point you reach 27 1/8" you slip stitches from the center back onto another holder. From that point you work on two sides separately, left and right. Work one side continuing the slipping to the holder in the front (on only one side of the front neck now) if you have more to do (which I hope you don’t :lol: ) and do the slipping stitches onto the holder on the side of the back neck stitches as well. When you finish the first side you put the remaining 54 stitch on a holder as well. Then work the other side the same way.

NECKLINE:
At this point you have 54sts on 2 side holders and 46sts on each of the front and back holders. Now you work the stitches from the holders onto one circular doing the little maneuver they gave at the joins to prevent holes. You now have 200 (for smallest size) stitches for the neck. This should be like any crew neck you would do in the round at this point, just bigger. On the next round you decrease to 132 and then work 8 rounds of garter stitch.

I’ve never seen neck shaping done this way, but it is quite clever and I guess it works. I’m not exactly sure what the problem you were having was caused by but possibly reading another explanation of what was supposed to be done you will be able to figure out what was wrong.