Help, shaping leg openings in dog sweater!

#1

I really don’t want to frog this… I consider myself to be an advanced knitter, I successfully completed the Tree of Life afghan for goodness sakes! But I don’t understand “fitted” patterns very well.

I’m trying to make a dog sweater (I would send the link, but this forum isn’t letting me since my account is so new).

I’m completely fine until I get to the Shape Leg Openings section:

[I]K5 (5, 7, 11, 13), join second ball of
yarn and bind off next 4 (6, 6, 10, 13) sts, work to last 9 (11,
13, 21, 26) sts, join third ball of yarn and bind off 4 (6, 6, 10,
13) sts, knit to end of row.
Working all sections at same time with separate balls of
yarn, continue in St st until pieces measure 1 (1½, 1½, 2½,
3)” from beginning of Leg Openings, end with a wrong side
row.[/I]

OK, so since I’m making medium size here is what I did so far: I knit 7, I joined a new ball of yarn, using the ORIGINAL ball of yarn, I bound off 6 sts. Using the ORIGINAL ball of yarn I knit to the last 13 sts, joined another ball of yarn, bound off 6 sts with ORIGINAL ball of yarn, and finished the row with the original ball of yarn. Did I do that correctly?

If so, I can’t for the life of me figure out what it’s telling me to do next. “Working all sections at the same time with separate balls of yarn…”. What sections exactly am I going to be working? I realize that the bind off sts are the leg holes, but I’m not sure what to do with the other balls of yarn… is there a video somewhere? I’ve searched and searched the internet for help but every explanation doesn’t make sense to me. I know I’m probably making this harder than it is, but that’s how my mind works :wink:

#2

Posting the section of the pattern that’s giving you a problem is just fine.

Usually, you don’t keep working and binding off the sts with the same yarn, you drop it and use the new one to work the next section, then drop it and use another one for the 3rd section. But as long as you have 3 strands of yarn attached to the knitting you’re okay.

Now that you’ve reached the end of the row, turn and work the ws row with that original yarn. When you get to the bound off sts, drop it and pick up the other yarn from the other side of the gap and work the ws on those sts. Do the same at the other gap. Then turn and work the RS row over the first set of sts with that same yarn, drop it and pick up the other yarn to knit the next section, then drop it and pick up the other strand of yarn to work the last set of sts. By now you should get the idea - each section has its own yarn and you work each set of stiches with the separate pieces of yarn.

#3

You should have started a new end of yarn at the first leg opening and then a third end of yarn at the second leg opening. The instructions want you to work three sections of knitting with three separate ends of yarn. One is a side section, then a middle section over the back and then another side section. But you can still add in the new yarn as you work back on the current row. Use the original yarn which is the current working yarn to work the side section. Drop the yarn when you get to the bound off sts for the second leg and go to the middle section of sts. Work those sts with a new end of yarn until you get to the bound off first leg sts. Skip those bound off sts and go to the side sts. Work those sts with a third end of yarn. Continue to work back an forth on the three sections, each with its own working yarn until the pattern tells you to work across all three sections, completing the leg openings and joining the sweater into one piece again.

#4

Oh my goodness, thank you so much Suzeeq! I did it! It makes sense now :slight_smile:

#5

Thank you too, salmonmac! I love this forum, I’m sure I’ll be coming back quite often.