Having problems with armhole shaping/bind-off for sweater

How-to Questions
1

I cannot seem to figure this out, I hope someone can help me. I’m working on an “easy bulky sweater” by Melinda Goodfellow. I have done the back of the sweater in a stockinette stitch for 18", and now it’s time for me to start the armhole shaping. For the back so far, I have [I]88[/I] stitches which is correct. The directions now read:

Armhole shaping: Bind off 3 sts at beginning of next 2 rows. There are [I]82[/I] sts on needle. Continue to work in stockinette stitch until armhole measures 11".

Okay, so I tried binding off 3 stitches, but after binding them off I am left with one stitch for those bound off stitches, leaving me a total of 86 stitches on the row instead of 82. So obviously I am binding the 3 stitches off wrong. What I did was knit one stitch onto my right needle, then bound off one stitch, then bound off a another stitch, which left me with one stitch on my right needle. So by continuing across the row, it doesn’t add up to 82 stitches, I have 86 now. Does that make sense? How should I be binding those three stitches off instead, so that I am left with 82 stitches all the way across?

Thank you!

2

OH wait. I only did one row so far, maybe after the second row I’ll be at 82. Duh! ROFL Let me try that, how embarassing if it was that simple! Still I did two rows the first time around and I was still off at 84, I’m not sure I’m binding the three stitches off right…

3

Well, I’m the only one here, but I figured it out, I needed to knit one stitch and bind off three. I have 82 stitches now, although one of the bound off sides seems a bit longer than the other for some reason. Thanks anyway!

4

The first time I did a sweater pattern I was totally confused too! Somehow I made it come out right though.

5

Since you bound off on different rows, the 2nd one is higher, but after you do the whole armhole, it won’t be noticeable. Also, when you do the shoulder BO, you do the RS first again, then the next one on the WS, so both armholes will actually have the same number of rows.