I am an advanced beginner knitter and attempting to knit my first Stephen West pattern, the Rockefeller shawl. It seems straight forward but somehow the stitch count doesn’t seem to match as the pattern progresses. In section 1 following the long tail cast on, the pattern calls for K35, sl3 wyif. I get how to knit the abbreviations but as the pattern goes on there seems to be a decrease in the stitch number. Is the sl3 wyif intended to be a decrease (short row)? It doesn’t make sense to me and I can’t find any tutorials. If anyone is familiar with this technique or the Rockefeller pattern, I would greatly appreciate your help!
Hi. Welcome to KH. sl3 wyif (slip 3 with yarn in front) isn’t a decrease or short rows. Move the yarn to the front of the work if it isn’t already there, slip 3 sts purwise then move the yarn to the back of the work if that’s where you need it to be, and continue with the pattern instructions. The 3 slipped sts will have a bar across the front of them. Make sure you don’t do an accidental yo when you move the yarn from back to front and from front to back.
What an interesting combination of techniques in a shawl. The pattern looks like it begins with short rows which are knit side to side for the part that will be closest to your neck. I agree with GG, the slip stitch isn’t a decrease but it looks like there are short rows in this portion of the pattern. If the stockinette short rows work as usual, the total number of live sts shouldn’t change but you may only be working on a subset of those sts on some rows (i.e., short rows).
Perhaps if you quote just a line or two where the sts seems to dec we can figure it out.
A big thank you to both you and GrumpyGramma for taking the time to address my question. Attached is a scan of the part I don’t get.
Thanks again for any insight you can give me. Maybe I need to pay a knitting instructor to work with me on this pattern?
We’re happy to try and help. You start with the cast on of 38sts, 35 of which are knit and the last 3 slipped. When you get to row 1 you start some short rows so you won’t be knitting all of the 38sts, only some of those sts. The pattern probably defines w&t, wrap and turn, but it should look like this video:
On row 7, you’ll work 38sts, all of the sts that are on the needle. They don’t decrease, they just wait until you work all of them again
Thank you sooo much! I will the watch video and enjoy learning something new for my knitting repertoire.