I’m super new to knitting. In fact, I’ve only ever done rib knit scarves…which are so boring I lose interest in knitting. So, I’m trying a new pattern which seemed fairly cut and dry while remaining challenging and I thought “Gee, this looks like a winner. How could I possibly mess this up?” And I can’t even get the thing started!! LOL! I’m almost sure that if I could just get past this setup part I would be golden
The pattern I’m trying is the hole-in-hole-scarf by Silja Devine that I found on ravelry.
She says at the beginning “Cast on 3 stitches. Knit the 4 next rows. Pick up 1 stitch in the space between two garterrows
and pick up 3 stitches in the cast on row.”
I’m really confused!!! Am I supposed to knit four rows then pick up 1 stitch (in between which 2 garterrows??) Or does she mean to pickup a stitch around row 2 of the 4 that I’m stitching? Am I making sense?
Then I’m totally lost when she says to pick up 3 stitches in the cast on row. I’ve googled picking up stitches and I can only find stuff where people are using new pieces of yarn. Do you think that’s what she means for me to do? Or is there another technique for picking up stitches?
Any help anyone can offer me would be GREATLY appreciated!! Thanks everyone!!
As far as HOW to actually pick up stitches, there is a video here on how to do it.
As far as where to pick them up, I haven’t actually used this pattern before but it sounds to me like you would do the following:
Cast on 3 stitches
Knit 4 rows (4 rows will create 2 garter “ridges”)
Pick up 1 stitch on the side of your work in between these 2 garter ridges (here’s where you would use the technique demonstrated in the video)
After step 3 is complete, you work will have rotated and your cast on edge will be the left hand side of your work (assuming you are still holding the needle with your stitches in your right hand). Now pick up another 3 stitches along the cast on edge. You will now have a total of 7 stitches on your needle.
Basically what you’re doing is picking up stitches along the outer edge of your work to create a rounded edge.
Like I said, I haven’t actually done this myself … but this is what the pattern sounds like to me and how I would do it if trying it for the first time. Hopefully this will give you a place to start … let me know if it works out! :knitting:
This pattern starts like a lot of top down shawls with a little square of garter st where you pick up sts on the side and the cast on. You don’t need to do it that way; an alternate is to cast on 5 sts, knit a row with a kfb at the end, knit row 2 with a kfb at the end and you have 7 sts. Then you begin with the ‘back’ row, which is what she calls her WS rows, and continue the pattern.
Suzeeq’s solution seems much simpler than following the pattern as written … especially if you’re new to knitting or to techniques like picking up stitches! Thanks for the tip!
