Neckband help

I have looked around at other posts, but can’t find what I’m looking for. I think I’m missing something basic because none of the instructions make sense to me, and so I have quite a few questions. My pattern says:

Sew right shoulder seam,
leaving left shoulder seam open.

Neckband: With RS facing and
smaller needles, pick up and knit
15 sts down left front neck edge.
K12 (12-14-14-16-16) from front
neck st holder. Pick up and knit
15 sts up right front neck edge.
K22 (22-26-26-30-30) from Back
neck st holder, inc 2 (2-0-0-2-
2) sts evenly across. 66 (66-70-70-
78-78) sts.

1st row: (RS). *P2. K2. Rep from * to
last 2 sts. P2.
2nd row: *K2. P2. Rep from * to last
2 sts. K2.
Rep last 2 rows of (K2. P2) ribbing
twice more.
Cast off in ribbing.

My questions are

  1. What does “15 sts down left front neck edge”? There are only about 20 stitches total between the shoulder and the stitches on the holder, on the left front neck edge. So do I start knitting 5 stitches up from the holder, toward the holder?

  2. After knitting some stitches from the holder, from the left edge, it wants me to jump over to the right front edge? How?

  3. Then jump to the back stitch holder? Again, how?

  4. Then it says to knit 22 (I’m making the smallest size) from back neck stitch holder (there are only 22 on it), increasing 2 evenly across to somehow get 66. That means I need two new stitches for every one I currently have. How?

  5. Finally, there are row instructions. What is a row at this point?

I know this is a lot, so thank you for any insight!!!

https://www.yarnspirations.com/patons-easy-knit-sweater/PAK0129-030035M.html

  1. You’re to pick up sts along the rows starting at the left shoulder and working toward the holder. Pick them up approximately evenly. If there are 20 rows along that area and you need to pick up 15sts you could pick up in rows 1-3, skip 4, pick up in rows 5-7, skip 8 and so on until you’ve picked up 15sts.

  2. You should be knitting all the sts on the front holder which will take you to the right front neck edge. Do you have the correct number of sts on hold or have you more than is given for you size?

  3. Picking up sts to the right shoulder seam will be similar to the way you picked up on the left shoulder and should leave you at the back stitch holder. Knit across those sts on hold.

  4. The 66sts is the total number of sts counting all the sts you’ve picked up or knit from a holder all the way around the neckline. It’s not just the back holder sts plus increase.

  5. Once you’ve picked up all these sts on your needle, you can turn as you would at the end of a row and follow the row instructions. You’ll be working back and forth on these neckband sts.

This video may be somewhat helpful. There aren’t sts on holders for this particular sweater but the idea of picking up down the left front, working across the front then up the right front to the back sts is similar. Of course there isn’t an opening at the neck either. You will have the opening so you can use either a straight needle or a circular (but not joining in the round).


Count your sts once you’ve picked up or worked all the sts. You want to be sure that you have a multiple of 4 plus 2 so that you can complete the neckline in K2P2 rib as given in the pattern. If you pick up an extra stitch or two along the way, you can always decrease it as you knit row one.

Would you please delete the other pages of the pattern? Due to designer copyright we can’t post large portions of patterns on the forum. Just the page with the red box is enough.

1 Like

This is incredibly helpful. Thank you. So do I understand this right?

I start at the top of the left front neck, and start moving toward the front stitch holder, picking up 15 of the stitches evenly along the way (and leaving some not picked up). Stitch across the stitch holder (I do in fact have the right number there, so that makes sense). Then go up to the top of the right front neck, picking up 15 evenly there too.

You say at this point I should be at the back stitch holder, and it would make sense with the instructions if I was. However, I’m not. There are stitches across the back on either side of the holder. Maybe I made a mistake earlier, or my right shoulder seam should have gone all the way to the holder somehow. But doesn’t 22 stitches sound short for the back neck? Anyway, I will investigate that.

The 66 stitches being all the way around makes a lot more sense.

And now my rows are made of those 66 stitches. Is that right?

Let me know if I got any of that wrong.

Thanks also for the video. And for letting me know about posting images! Will delete now.

The shoulder for the back and front directions are the same. You should have 2 sets of 8sts cast off, followed by 2 sets of 7sts cast off at each shoulder (8-8-7-7sts). Match up these sts and seam across all of them for the shoulder join.
At the pattern gauge, 22sts will be about 6 inches which seems fine for the back neck. That’s about what I have for the sweater I have on which is similar and also a size small.
Yes, you’ve got it. The rows are 66sts. Have fun finishing up and if you run into a problem or something doesn’t make sense, come back and ask. We’d love to see a photo of the sweater when you finish.