Help with the Yoke!

I am knitting my first sweater ever - it is a bottom up raglan sweater. I have knit the body up to the armpits and have knitted the two sleeves. I am now at the Yoke and have NO idea what the instructions mean!!! I was unable to attach the file for some reason and there is no link, so I will type it out:

YOKE
Begin the row in the center back of the body section of the sweater (after the 43rd(46th, 52nd, 58th) st. Begin knitting until the 1 st before the holder. PM and K the last st. Attach sleeve by holding the 12 st on separate holders together and knit 1st, pm, and cont around the sleeve until the last st. Pm, K1, Cont back to the body of the sweater continuing the chart as before. Before the last st, PM, K1, Attach the right sleeve in the same manner as the left (K1, Pm, Cont around to the last st, Pm, K1, and again at the back of the sweater, k1, Pm, knit until the end of the rnd.

I think i understand until the part where it says “Attach the sleeve by holding the 12 st on separate holders together and…” From what i have seen from online ‘research’ you just leave the underarm stitches on the holders. Is this true here? Do i just ignore all the stitches on the holders? I don’t get it - any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Yes, the underarm stitches of the sleeves and body will be held until the end when you join them, so just ignore them for now. You have 3 tubes - oOo - and where the circles touch are the underarms. You connect them by knitting around the outside of all of the tubes.

Thank you suzeeq - I think i get it - the pattern never mentions anything about joining the held stitches, so that confused me! I think it makes sense now!

I took some photos back in 2008…on how this joining of the body and the arms works. Anyway, I still have the photos…and I hope this photo set also helps you, bearing in mind…that I knit in-the-round with the Right Side on the inside of the ‘tube’, not on the outside…but the photos still serve.

Here is the ‘body’ of the sweater, ready for sleeves to be “attached/joined” and the yoke to be created. The turquoise blue ‘waste yarn’ are my 18st “on hold” for later ‘seaming’ to the sleeve’s 18st on hold, forming the armpit seam. This isn’t done until the yoke is all knit up.

Here is one of the sleeves, ready to be joined to the body. Notice, the 18st ‘held on waste yarn’. They are the armpit stitches, to be seamed to the body’s 18st ‘held on waste yarn’, after yoke is done.

I clipped the sleeve to the body, everything lined up…sleeve 18st on waste yarn to the body 18st on waste yarn…later on, after the yoke is all knit up…you will join those 18st together and they will be the armpit seam.

Notice, I used one long circular and ran it around through all of the body stitches and the sleeve stitches.

Now I’m ready to begin knitting round and round…on the outer perimeter of the sweater, forming the yoke.

I like to knit with the RS on the inside, and it makes no difference to the knitting. I could just as easily turn the work inside out at this point. I like to keep the RS on the inside, protecting it.

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Thank you ArtLady!!! These pictures are amazing and really helpful for a first time sweater-maker like me! I can’t thank you enough!!! This makes it so clear what needs to be done - thanks to you and suzeeq I am set to go!! :happydance:

Oh, just for the sake of it…here is the finished sweater…and you will notice…a little up from the number 1 on the tape measure, you can see where I’ve ‘seamed’ the 18st in the underarm.

Whenever you’re confused about what to do with stitches it helps to read ahead or look at the Finishing section, that will often clear things up for you.

[B]…which is what I said in Post 3, [U]in 3 places[/U]:
[/B]
“Here is the ‘body’ of the sweater, ready for sleeves to be “attached/joined” and the yoke to be created. The turquoise blue ‘waste yarn’ are my 18st “on hold” for later ‘seaming’ to the sleeve’s 18st on hold, forming the armpit seam. [COLOR=Blue]This isn’t done until the yoke is all knit up.”

[COLOR=Black][B]And here:[/B][/COLOR]
[/COLOR]"Here is one of the sleeves, ready to be joined to the body. Notice, the 18st ‘held on waste yarn’. They are the armpit stitches, to be seamed to the body’s 18st ‘held on waste yarn’,[COLOR=Blue] after yoke is done.
[B]
[COLOR=Black]And here:[/COLOR]
[/B][/COLOR]"I clipped the sleeve to the body, everything lined up…sleeve 18st on waste yarn to the body 18st on waste yarn…[COLOR=Blue]later on, after the yoke is all knit up[/COLOR][B].[/B]…you will join those 18st together and they will be the armpit seam.

A great illustration and perfectly lovely finished sweater. How good of you to take photos along the way.

Thanks suzeeq - I read the entire pattern many times and the finishing section only says:

[I]weave in your ends, block, and sew 4 buttons onto the placket matching the positioning of the button holes.[/I]

That is why I was confused. The pattern never mentions anything about seaming the underarm or how to do it! I guess they figure most knitters know - now I know!

Thanks for your help!

Hmmm, maybe it’s somewhere else then, before that place. But the instructions are usually in there.

Unless OP got one of those vague (closely kin to Vogue) knitting patterns. I’ve come across quite a few that assume knitters know what they’re doing. For example, I love a lot of the DROPS designs, but they are often notoriously vague on certain steps!

Thanks for the step-by-step illustrated version, ArtLady! Very helpful.

That could be too. The Drops patterns aren’t so much ‘vague’ as just written with less detail as they figure you know basic construction. Though I’ve seen them include important things like ‘sew/graft the held sts’.