Hello,
I am currently making a cardigan and I am about to start the buttonband but I am unsure how to do it. I have followed the pattern and have slipped the last stitch. How do I pick up 4 stitches for every 3?
this is what the pattern says: If you have slipped the last sts in every row you will have a nice even edge along the front opening.
RS facing, start on the lower right hand edge and pick up 4 sts for every 3 stitches along the edge.
Any help you can give me would be great.
Thank you very much.
Since it’s a slip stitch edge you have 2 rows for every slip stitch. In the video Amy picks up in the slipped sts and shows that you can also pick up in the hole between the slipped sts.
So you would pick up in 3 of the slipped sts and also in a hole between slipped sts for 4sts picked up every 3.
Another possible choice is to pick up in every edge stitch then on the first row (k3, inc) to get the correct number. Sometimes I find one way works better than the other. If you choose kfb that would be (k2,kfb) but other increases would be between stitches. If I got the numbers wrong, please forgive me. Some things I can do but can’t translate into pattern-speak.
Just before you pick up all those stitches, it might be worth checking your gauge. It’s a real pain knitting a whole buttonband and then finding out that it is too tight or loose, and it can be hard to see until you have knitted the whole thing.
(Done that many times!)
Now I sometimes do a quick swatch, especially if I did not match stitch and row gauge.
Make a tallish rectangle to represent the body (same selvedge treatment) and pick up the recommended ratio and knit the width of the band. Then block gently.
If the band doesn’t sit nicely you can adjust your pick-up ratio.
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Thank you all so much, I really appreciate it. The tips and video was really helpful. I am going to give it ago tonight so see how it turns out
And also the bind offf method and needle size.
A button band might be a good gauge but with a bind off that is even slightly too tight it will make the button band flip when wearing.
Another way to check gauge is to use another part of the garment which has the same pattern. For example if the band is 1x1 rib and you already did 1x1 rib for the bottom hem of the body, you can use this to work out gauge for the band.