Help a beginner with understanding a pattern?

#1

I am knitting baby booties, and in doing so confronting a pattern that contains a few new issues…
These are knitted on straight needles, and this particular part of the pattern makes the top of the booties (pattern is in [square brackets] so its less confusing) which will include my first attempt at cabling… probably why I’m having issues;

Now I understand that leaving stitches unworked means to leave them on the left needle, but
[k15, p2, k4, p2, k1, leave remaining sts unworked.
Slip all sts with yarn in front:]
what does the last part mean? I know how to slip stitches, but what does it mean the stitches with yarn? All stitches are yarn! And what is this reference to “front”?

Then… What does “turn” mean?
[Row 1: Sl 1 from left to right needle, turn, p2, k2, p4, k2, p1
Row 2: Sl 1, turn, k2, p2, slip two sts to cable needle and hold in front, k2, k2 from cable needle, p2, k2]

Any help would be much appreciated!!

#2

Hi!

There are a lot of questions in this. Let me start you out on this:

To leave a stitch unworked, you just ignore it and leave it where it is.
Different is to slip a stitch. Then you just “ferry” it from the left to the right needle without knitting it.

When the pattern refers to “the yarn” it means: your woking yarn (that is not yet a stitch but runs up to the needle coming from the coil).
When the pattern says “turn” it means to turn your work around. you naturally do this in flat knitting when you get to the end. If you need to do this before the end of a row, the pattern will say that.

OK, this was very general, but it may help you through the pattern all together. Now lets get to the specific parts:

[k15, p2, k4, p2, k1, leave remaining sts unworked.

You start out and knit 15 stitches. then you purl 2. then you knit 4 stitches, you purl 2, you knit 1.

your work obviously has more stitches on the needle than those 24 (did I count correctly?) … so you just leve the rest of them where they are: on your left needle. But just for now.

then you work the next instruction

Slip all sts with yarn in front:]

you slip all those stitches that are left from the left to the right needle. But before you do so, you bring your yarn to the front of the work.

usually your yarn hangs behind your knitting, away from you. this time you lead it through the gap between the needles and let it hang down on the side towards you. Then you slip those stiches.

my guess would be you had about 27 stitches on the needle or so. Maybe 26. probably not (many) more, because it would get very bunched otherways.

so what does your pattern want you to do?

it wants you to knit and purl according to the pattern. And then it wants you to not work all stitches but go back.
This will make your knitting wider on one side than the other (you probably come around a curve in the pattern here). But in doing so, you pretty much wrap your yarn around the remaining stitches / pull it accross… the yarn in front / yarn in back reference just tells you which side of the fabric that pulled string will be visible on. the other side will remain untroubled by that.

how does the next line of the pattern go? and is the side you see at that point the inside or the outside of the boot? (I assume it is the inside and the 2 lines of purl are forming stochinette on the outside that cable nicely after a few rows? And I also assume that by bringing the yarn to the front of the work, you have a piece of string, spanning the inside of the boot. I further assume that the nex row will be knit / purled from the first of the stitches on the needle? Well, whatever I assume about your pattern… I hope I helped you around that first problematic corner)

I am just confused about the “turn” in the second place in row 1. That seems strange… is this really row 1 and is there really just one slipped stitch before that instruction? Or did you just cut something short?

#3

I’m sorry for the confusion, this is [strike]all[/strike] [B]some[/B] of the pattern:

[k15, p2, k4, p2, k1, leave remaining sts unworked. [COLOR=“Red”]{I am here}[/COLOR]
Slip all sts with yarn in front:
Row 1: Sl 1 from left to right needle, turn, p2, k2, p4, k2, p1
Row 2: Sl 1, turn, k2, p2, slip two sts to cable needle and hold in front, k2, k2 from cable needle, p2, k2
Row 3: Sl 1, turn, p3, k2, p4, k2, p2
Row 4: Sl 1, turn, k3, p2, k4, p2, k3
Row 5: Sl 1, turn, p4, k2, p4, k2, p3
Row 6: Sl 1, turn, k4, p2, slip two sts to cable needle and hold in back, k2, k2 from cable needle, p2, k4
Row 7: Sl 1, turn, p5, k2, p4, k2, p4
Row 8: Sl 1, turn, k5, p2, k4, p2, k5
Row 9: Sl 1, turn, p6, k2, p4, k2, p5
Row 10: Sl 1, turn, k6, p2, slip two sts to cable needle and hold in front, k2, k2 from cable needle, p2, k5
Row 11: Sl 1, turn, p7, k2, p4, k2, p6
Row 12: Sl 1, turn, k7, p2, k4, p2, k to end of row]

I am leaving 14 stitches unworked and so… is bunching a serious concern? Is the pattern flawed?

#4

Slip all sts with yarn in front:
Row 1: Sl 1 from left to right needle, turn, p2, k2, p4, k2, p1

AAAH!

it gives a general instruction: When you slip a stitch, do it with the yarn in front!

then, row 1, slip 1 stitch 8with yarn in front)

The “turn” part makes sense to me, when seeing the instructions in conjunction only…

work that one line

k15, p2, k4, p2, k1, leave remaining sts unworked. {I am here}

and then, with the rest of the stitches, you do as row 1 and row 2 and so on say…

that means that you knit / purl your 24 stitches, then in row 1 slip one (more) stitch with yarn in front, then turn and work back (call it row 1 b or so, technically making the reverse row.)
then work

k15, p2, k4, p2, k1, leave remaining sts unworked.

again, skip row 1 that you have already done and do row 2:
slip 1 with yarn in front, follow the rest…

and so on.

oh man, what a confusing way of describing it… I don’t know if my way is any better than your pattern :wink:

#5

lambdashuttle it’s against copyright to post the entire pattern. Please edit your post so it only has the information that pertains to your question.

It helps when asking questions to always include a pattern name, link if possible and a few lines if you need to and what you’re making. It makes it easier to help you right away.:thumbsup: