Hello, everyone! I’m new to this forum but so glad to be here! I definitely hope to make friends with fellow knitters.
I’m struggling with this sweater pattern called Raga. It’s a Fair isle knitting pattern with steek stitches. I understand everything up until the point where we shape armholes and make steeks. I’ve never done steek stitches before. The pattern reads…
“Work 6 stitches and place on holder; work the next 133 stitches of front; work the next 11 stitches and place on holder; work the next 133 stitches of back, work the next 5 stitches and place on holder.”
Got it. Understand. Then I get to this point…
“Using colors for next row of chart cast on 5 steek stitches…” With a crochet hook or a knitting needle? Does it matter?
Then I have a problem with the shaping of the front of the neck. It says, “Next round, using colors as indicated work 5 steek stitches; work the next 41 stitches, place the next 33 stitches on stitch holder, cast on 10 steek stitches, work to end of round.” That’s all the information for shaping the neck. Later on they have us picking up those 33 stitches for the neckband. So any guesses as to where the front and back stitches are supposed to be? It just goes right into telling us we need to start decreasing the neck stitches at each side of the neck. So I’m assuming that since the neck obviously includes both front and back stitches, we are just decreasing on both sides of the round. I don’t know. Any ideas?
Thanks so much for your help and patience. Hoping to have this done by Christmas
Gorgeous Fair Isle.
You might as well cast on with the knitting needles as you’ll ultimately need the sts on the needles. Here’s a video for casting on mid-row:
I’m not sure I understand the second question. The 33sts front center sts are on a holder replaced by 10 steek sts. The round continues with the remaining front and back sts and you keep knitting the tube for about the depth of the shoulders and armholes. The decreases at the neck will shape the sides of the neck for later neckband sts.
Thank you so much!! You’ve definitely been a great help. I guess my second question has to do with not understanding where the front and the back stitches are supposed to be divided. There is also a section for joining the shoulders. The shoulder stitches came out of nowhere in the pattern. I’m confused about that since we’re supposed to be knitting in the round (Fair Isle). I haven’t actually knitted anything, I’m just reading through to see if it’s doable. Again, thank you, and I’ll be watching the video in a few minutes.
The front and back divide at the armhole cast ons (11sts each for the armhole steeks). The front steek forms the lower part of the neck. The sections between the armhole steeks and the front steek form the right and left shoulders. When you get to the proper length, the front shoulders will join with the back shoulder on each side. The front steek is cut to form the neck opening and the armhole steeks are cut to leave an opening for the sleeves.
Sometimes these directions are more difficult to read and imagine than when you actually have sts on the needle. On the other hand, there’s so much work to this sweater, I can well appreciate that you want a good idea of where it’s all going before you start.
