I’m knitting a baby sweater and despite asking my Mom for help, we are still confused by the pattern. For the left front piece of the cardigan, on the top half, it says:
“Cont to dec at armhole edge on next and every foll alt row as before AT THE SAME TIME, dec 1 st at neck edge on next 4 rows. 4 sts. Keeping neck edge straight, cont dec at armhole edge as before to 2 sts, ending with a P row.”
I understand that I’m supposed to decrease on the armhole edge every other row. But when I decrease on the neck edge, it makes it look weird - it doesn’t seem like I should be decreasing on the buttonhole edge because it makes it not straight/perpendicular to the bottom edge.
Any advice? Or help understanding whether there’s a better way to interpret this pattern or if I should just adapt it differently?
Thanks!!
Welcome!
What pattern are you making? Can you give us a link to it or a pattern name?
There have to be decreases to shape the neck and this means that the button hole edge won’t continue in a straight line. If it’s a round neck, the button hole band will stop at the neck. For a V-neck, the decreases usually continue inside the button hole band which then continues up to the shoulder at a slant.
The pattern is just a copy I got from a friend so I don’t have a link or even the full name. It’s called a Matinee Coat, design 5. I think it’s a British pattern. I’m attaching a picture but it’s not great.
It looks like a rounded neck or possibly one with a slant up the side. There are two possibilities that I can think of: one is that the buttonhole or button band stops at the beginning of the neck shaping. In that case there are probably instructions later for picking up sts for a collar or neck band.
The other possibility is that the bands continue around the neck. In that case the decreases are done between the body and the button band rather than at the very edge. So the number of sts in the band stays the same but the decreases come from the main body of the sweater.
It’s a very sweet looking cardigan.