Question from a newbie!

#1

Hello all, I learned to knit from a scandanavian woman in college. Didn’t really do it until recently (I am 40!) when I picked up the same ball of yarn and needles and retaught myself the basics!

I figured it was actually time to make something! Anyway, I am getting to a point that is confusing to me because I don’t know all the lingo.

It says to place 38 sleeve stitches on a stitch holder, With backward loop cast on 10 stitches, rejoin yarn and purl across back. What does rejoin yarn mean?

Then after you have the body knit, the heading is Edging. It says

[I]Place a marker to mark the beginning of the edging round. Pick up and knit stitches up right front of the cardigan (pick up 2 sts for every 3 rows), place a 2nd marker at the top of the right front, continue to pick up and knit 1 sts in every stitch around the neckline
(across right shoulder,across back, across left shoulder. Pick up and knit sts down the left front, picking up 2 sts for every 3 rows. Knit across all bottom edge sts ending at the beginning of round marker.
Next round: SM, purl around all edging sts ending back at beginning of the round marker. SM
Next round: knit to 3 sts before next marker, bind off 2 sts, SM, knit to end of round.
Next round: purl to previously bound off sts, remove marker, purl to end of round.
Next round: knit all sts.
Last round: Use #8 needle to bind off all sts knit-wise.[/I]

What does it mean to pick up 2 sts. every three rows?
What is bind-off knit-wise?

Thanks so much!

Deb

#2

OK, I can answer 2 out of your 3 questions!!! Hopefully, someone else will help with the other one soon.

What does it mean to pick up 2 sts every 3 rows?? This means that you are picking up stitches along the side of the rows. When you are doing this, for every 3 rows of stitches, you will pick up 2 stitches.

What is bind-off knit wise? This means that when you are binding off the stitches, you will be knitting them (instead of purling) as you bind off.

hth, knitcindy

#3

Put the sleeve sts on a holder - this can be another needle, a spare piece of yarn or whatever - then with the same yarn you’ve been knitting with, do the backward loop CO, putting 10 new sts on the R needle. That’s on the Cast ons page as the Single CO, or you can switch the needle to the L hand and use the knit Cast on instead. You won’t need to ‘rejoin’ yarn after that, use the same yarn you used to CO with, and go to the back sts to knit them. Do the same thing at the other sleeve, and finish the body.

There’s a video for picking up sts on the Tips page, you will pick up along the ends of rows, though if you do them along the back neck you pick up in the other side of the neck sts and you pick up one st in each neck st there. The ‘2 sts out of every 3’ are when you pick up at the ends of the row; knit in 2 sts, skip 1, knit 2, skip 1, etc.

#4

I posted this again not realizing I had already posted about it but when I posted this question I wasn’t at this point in the knitting yet. Now I am at the edging and totally confused! This is worked on circular needles (It is the daisy chain pattern on ravelry) and so when I am to the point of edging, I have the bottom of the sweater (which has been worked from the top down) on the needles. How do I pick up stitches on the same needles? I did it once around, but then I had the bottom of the sweater on one half of the needles and the picked up stitches on the other half! Then I didn’t know how in the world I was supposed to knit or purl… Please help!

#5

They don’t show you the bottom of this pattern which would have helped. They want you to knit an edging on the bottom of the sweater and along the two fronts all in one continuous motion. You’d start at the bottom, go up one of the fronts, around the neckline, down the other front, join with the bottom stitches, and continue around. Where they tell you to place the markers, I believe, is to mark the button holes. Watch this carefully at the neckline, because there comes a point in the edging where you have to bind off a few stitches for the button hole.

When you knit in the round, this automatically makes stockinette stitch. If you knit one round, purl one round, and switch like that, you’ll get a garter stitch while knitting in the round. I think that’s what they’re trying to do here.

I stopped knitting for 15 years and started back up again a few years ago in my 50’s. The way knitting directions are written now are different than years ago. It just takes some getting used to. Pretty soon it will be easy for you. Just hang in there.

#6

An alternative for this pattern would be to knit a few rows of garter on the bottom only first and bind off. You could then pick up stitches along the garter stitch border edge, up one front, around the neckline, down the second front, and along the garter stitch border on the other side. You would then turn your work and knit it back and forth like on straight needles. Again, don’t forget about the bind off stitches for the button. You can either knit this in one piece in a round, or do it this alternate way. It’s your choice. If you do decide to knit the bottom edge first, your first row will be a purl row. You would do all the bottom edge rows in purl rows for this alternate way or a reverse stockinette.