Help on vest pattern

How-to Questions
1

I’m making my first vest, and I don’t understand how to shape the shoulders. The vest is made in one piece, except you sew the shoulders. The pattern states: “Bind off at each arm edge (4 sts) twice, then (3) once. Bind off remaining (16) stitches for back neck”. Now, there’s only 38 stitches total, so am I bounding off all these stitches? By the time I bind all these off, that’s all 38 stitches. Maybe I’m binding off the wrong edges–I don’t understand. Can someone explain this to me? I guess I’ve been struck by a “dumb stick”!

Thanks,

Knitaholic
:doh:

2

You’re supposed to end up with all the stitches bound off. Doing it in steps shapes the shoulders.

3

So, you’re saying that I just bind off all these stitches at one time? I don’t bind off one edge, go all the way to the other edge, and then bind off in the middle, do I? Sounds complicated to me.

Knitaholic
:??

4

No, eventually you will have all the stiches bound off.

What you do is at the beginning of the next row–

bind off 4 and work to the end.

Bind of 4 at the beginning of the next row and work to the end.

Repeat the above two rows.

Then bind off 3 and the beginning of the next two rows, the same way as above.

At this point you should have 16 stitches left on the needle. Bind them off.

5

Thanks Ingrid, now this makes more sense. I told you I’ve been hit with a “dumb stick”. Just didn’t make sense to me.

Knitaholic
:thinking:

6

When I was learning how to knit, there was no computer, etc. I found that just doing exactly what the pattern said was what I needed to do. Understanding came after I saw how it all turned out.