Increasing in stitches

Heyhey :slight_smile:

In another thread I found this pattern for slippers which look nice and seem easy enough to knit up in just a few days. I figured it would be great to be able to wear something like those on my plane ride to South Africa since I tend to get chilly on airplanes and i don’t like to have to keep my shoes on for 12+ hours when I’m not walking anywhere anyway…

But I don’t understand the increase in the second stitch and in every stitch part: which increase do I use (I looked on the page with Amy’s videos and there are so many) and exactly does it mean to do the increase in every second stitch?

edited: and I came up with another idea I wanted to run by you all: it seems that in this pattern you knit up two halves which you then sew together at the top and bottom but I’m thinking of just knitting it as a whole by doing the ribbed twice as long and then decrease instead of increase; which would mean all I have to do in the end is sew the top 5 stitches together.
This because I think it wouldn’t be nice to have a seem going right along the bottom of your foot.
But maybe, being a not too experienced knitter: am I missing any side effects if I do this? would it effect the form of the slipper for example?

thanks for any help :slight_smile:

/Karen.

Hello, Karen!

I think the increase they are talking about is knit into the front and back of every OTHER stitch…

Also, if you used a provisional cast on, you could kitchener stitch these together and you wouldnt have a bulky seam.

There are videos for all these wonderful things on Amy’s wonderful site.

Good luck!

Next Row: Increase in 2nd stitch of each row until you have 22 stitches on the needle.
Next Row: Increase in each stitch to 44 sts.

If you start (“Next Row”) with 22 stitches, and “increase in each stitch to 44 sts.”, wouldn’t you have to increase every stitch, rather than every other stitch? :?? Or am I not understanding ‘increase’? I really want to know how to do this, too, 'cause I really like those slippers and think the pattern looks simple (other than that part!).

Yep you’re right!

Or you could try these.
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=12662.0

~Brooke

Kelly: thanks for that answer! I just tried that on a tester and it works fine that way so I will do them like that. THen I’ll also try the kitchener stitch; yay for learning new things on simple projects!! :cheering:

Brooke: the first time you start increasing you do it every other stitch untill you have 22 stitches and once you have 22, you do a final row of increasing by doubleknitting each stitch so you’ll end up with 44.

But while I was waiting for you Northern Americanos to wake up, I also found the pattern that Brooke linked to here (the Mary Jane’s; why are they called that anyway??) and I started on those instead. I’ve got one finished already so these ones will have to wait untill after my trip :slight_smile:

I’ll take the one I have finished with me to my boyfriend so I can take a picture of it and maybe I should start my own blog in the blog thread to put the pictures in…

I still can’t believe how nice it is to finish something and to see it’s actually useful/wearable etc :smiley: Most of the things I do in my sparetime, like reading and corresponding etc don’t really have this finished-factor to them, if you know what I mean. That alone could get addictive!

/Karen :XX:

I am very confused. I hope I don’t come off as argumentative, as I assure you that’s not my intent. It’s just that I’m a new knitter, who struggles to read and comprehend pattern instructions, and when I read,

Next Row: Increase in 2nd stitch of each row until you have 22 stitches on the needle

I interpret that as increasing only the 2nd stitch. :doh: I’m sure I’m stressing your patience, but can you please help me understand how you determined that means every other stitch. :wall:

I’ve copied a part of the pattern, and inserted my notes by the *'s. I hope this helps!

Cast on 5 sts.
Knit 6 rows.

Next Row: Increase in 2nd stitch of each row until you have 22 stitches on the needle.

** I would interpret this to mean that you increase one stitch per row until you have 22 total. This means it will take you 16 rows of knitting to work up to 22 stitches (if I can add!) **

Next Row: Increase in each stitch to 44 sts.

** I would interpret this to mean that once you have 22 stitches on your needle, you will need to increase in every stitch for one row of knitting. You would do this by kntting in the front and back of each stitch.

So…you will have six rows of 5 stitches knitted, then you will slowly increase – one stitch per row – until you have 22, and then you will make a big increase – one increase per stitch in one row – to 44.

Holly

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong!!

Holly: I think you are right. After reading the different answers here I figured the pictures might help; so I just downloaded the picture on that page, enlarged it a bit and tried to count the rows in which she increased: it does look like there are about 16 to 18 of them so I think you are correct in your way of reading the pattern.

If anyone tries, let me know how it works out?

/Karen.