I Need Help With Neck, Armhole Instructions!

I am knitting my 2nd sweater and have hit a major roadblock. The pattern is “Cropped Jacket” in Leisure Arts Book 4165 (a book filled with projects using SpeedStix). It’s absolutely gorgeous so far! But I’m having a big problem. Having already knitted the Back, I am now in the process of knitting the Right Front, and am almost finished with it. These are the instructions I’m having trouble with:

“Rep last 2 rows 6 more times, AT THE SAME TIME, when piece measures 15.5” from beg, end with a RS row.

[B]Shape Neck[/B]
Bind off 3 sts at neck edge once, dec 1 st at neck edge every row 4 times.

[B]LEFT FRONT[/B]
Work as for Right Front, reversing shaping."

From there, the pattern has instructions for Sleeves and Finishing.

So … my questions:

  1. The words AT THE SAME TIME are confusing. Do I simply continue the knitting on the Right Front until I get 15.5" from beginning? Or is there more to it?

  2. The wording for shaping the neck is confusing too. When it says to bind off 3 stitches – is that RS or WS? I would expect it’s RS as I was supposed to end the Right Front with a RS row. If that’s correct, after I do the bind off, do I do the dec immediately in the next stitch? If not, when do I do it?

  3. Finally, it does not tell me how to complete the piece. Is the Right Front and Left Front one big piece? Or 2 separate pieces? When I look at the finishing instructions, it’s unclear if I’m supposed to be sewing 2 pieces or 1. If I read closely and between the lines I think it’s 1 piece. Can this be true??

For anyone who reads this and is able to offer me help … thank you in advance! I really appreciate your time and wisdom!!

Sue in Wisconsin

When the RF is 15.5" long, begin the shaping, which is BO 3 sts at the neck edge, then work another row and dec 1 st at the neck edge and again on another 3 rows. It may be on the RS or WS to start, just depends, but the BO has to be at the beginning of a row.
The LF is another piece and you follow the same shaping instructions except the BO and decs will be on the opposite edge from where you did them on the RF.

Thank you so much for your advice, and I think I understand everything! I really appreciate your getting back to me, and so quickly!!!