P2togtbl help, please

How-to Questions
1

I’m trying to knit a scarf where the WS rows start with p2togtbl and end with p2tog, the rest of the row is all p. The RS rows begin and end with k4.

My problem is that the p2tog side looks lovely, but p2togtbl side is all loose and messy.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

2

Hi and welcome!
Are you doing the p2togtbl like this?


It should tighten things up a bit. I’m not sure why it would be looser.

3

Yes, that’s the way I’ve been doing it. All the videos I’ve found show this stitch in the middle of a row, not at the end. So, I wonder if that’s the problem. My edges are always messy, :frowning: so I usually slip my stitches at the end, but I can’t do that in this situation.

After posting, I played around with it a bit. I tried k2togtbl at the end of the previous row, and then just doing a single purl to start the row, and that seems to be better. I also tried doing k2tog at the end of the previous row. They don’t look quite as nice as the other end where I did p2tog, but they’re similar enough, and they’re definitely tighter. Now, I can’t decide which looks better. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I’d appreciate it.

4

I would try one or more of the following:

  1. Work your decreases one stitch in from each edge.

  2. Work you decreases on the knit side by starting with K2tog and ending with a left leaning decrease e.g. SSK or SKP. According to Amy’s Decreases Page K2togtbl twists the stiches around and isn’t a match for k2tog.

  3. Substitute P2togtbl with another left leaning purl decrease:

http://www.knittinghelp.com/video/play/left-slanting-purl-decrease-english

Of course, depending on the right side pattern and the type/position of the increases some or all of my suggestions may not work. (I’m guessing there are increases to stop the scarf vanishing to a point.)

5

Is it possible to link to your pattern or give the name so maybe somebody can find it?

6

Thanks, ladies.

I’ll give your suggestions a try, Julie.

And, GG, that would be helpful, wouldn’t it? :stuck_out_tongue:

Here’s the link:

7

Thanks for the link. If I couldn’t get the decrease to look good I’d just add an edge stitch on each end and work the decrease after working the edge stitch. It will look a little different from the pattern photo but personally I think I’d prefer it over the look of the decrease in the edge stitch. That’s just me.