[FONT=‘Times New Roman’]I’m curious about how to increase for front bands in a sweater. The instructions say to “Knit 12 sts, increasing 5 sts evenly – 17 sts. Work even in St st for 12 inches. Bind off stitches. “ Does this mean that I increase in the first row to make 17 stitches? Or do I gradually increase the 5 stitches over several rows. I appreciate your help on this![/FONT]
Ok you need to add 5 stitches.
you have 12
as a general rule, you should avoid increase in very first and very last stitch (it make the edges harder to seam/finish)
so lets subtract 2 (first and last stitch) now you need to add 5 stitches evenly over 10… (mm, 1 new stitch ever 2!)
so *knit (work) 2, M1, and end row with K2
VV[COLOR=Blue][B]M[/B][/COLOR]VV[COLOR=Blue][B]M[/B][/COLOR]VV[COLOR=Blue][B]M[/B][/COLOR]VV[B][COLOR=Blue]M[/COLOR][/B]VV[COLOR=Blue][B]M[/B][/COLOR]VV 12 V’s (original stitches, 5 M’s)
and the M’s are evenly spaced…
General rule.
subtract [B][COLOR=Blue]2[/COLOR][/B] (in your case, 12 -2=12)
divide remaining number by increase #
(10 /5=[COLOR=Red][B]2[/B][/COLOR])
place increases by result, (K[B][COLOR=Blue]2[/COLOR][/B], then increase, then K[COLOR=Red][B]2[/B][/COLOR])
(color coded so you can see where the numbers come from)
in some cases, you will end up with 3 or 4 (after the last increase) but it will be fine… you don’t want the increases bunched up–and you do want them MORE even (but…you don’t have to be obsessive!)
Increase the 5 sts evenly across, about every 3rd st or every other one.