Hi,
Again…with the confusing Erika Knight book. I tell you I find her pattern instructions very confusing. This is part of the instructions for a silk shrug. I have just completed the ribbed (k 1 p 1) band for the back and am about to do stockinette. Here’s the instructions and underneath, each thing that confuses me!
Change to size 5 needles and beg with a k row, work in St st, inc 1 st at each end of 9th row and every foll 6th row until there are 114 sts (I started at 102 for my size).
My questions are:
Couldn’t any row be a knit row? I just had to knit ribbing so it measures 1-1/2 inches, so once it measures that I can start a k row because there’s no “wrong side” to a k one p one rib, right?
Next question is what kind of increase? It doesn’t specify what kind of increase.
Next question. I’m confused about "every foll 6th row). Would it go:
knit in St st for 9 rows. Increase on ninth row and then increase every 6th and ninth row from then on until you get the right number? OR does it mean to increase every 6th and 9th row from the moment you start St st after the ribbing?
Thanks so much. This forum has been very helpful for answering knitting pattern questions.
Best wishes,
Nancy
First, you’re right that you could, in theory, start with either a knit or purl for the first row of stockinette. However, they tell you to start with a knit row so that sets up the pattern with this particular row as the front, and the rest of the pattern can follow from there.
If you’ve worked 6 rows of ribbing, then you’d start the increases on the 9th total row (3rd row of stockinette). However, if you’ve done more ribbing than that, then increase on the 9th row of stockinette and after that on the 15, 21, 27, etc.
I like doing a M1 increase right after the edge stitch. You could also do a kfb for the increases. Whichever you prefer is correct, and if it’s going to be seamed that it doesn’t matter all that much, though leaving the edge stitches to be the edge stitches and increasing just inside them gives you a more even seaming edge.
Thanks Ingrid. Maybe I didn’t phrase the question clearly. The ribbing is already done. The part I’m confused about has to do w/ the stockinette stitch I’m to do now that I’m done w/ the ribbing. The ribbing measures 1-1/2 inches in depth and I cast on 102 stitches. When doing St st, I’m eventually going to increase to 114 using the increases on every 9th and sixth row. I just don’t understand when I start the increases on every sixth row because the pattern instruction doesn’t make it clear whether I knit 9 rows and THEN increase on every 6th or 9th row OR do I increase on the 6th row before I even hit row 9?
Also, when I said I didn’t know what it meant to start on a knit side, I meant that since I had ribbing preceding the stockinette, there is no “knit side.” I pretty much can start a knit side as soon as the ribbing measures 1-1/2 as required by the pattern, right?
The way I read it is to increase on the 9th row. This would be the only time you would do a 9th row increase. From there on out you would increase on every 6th row till you get you 114 stitches.
The knit side is referring to a knit row of the stockinette pattern, not the ribbing. That’s done and the instructions pertain to when you start the stockinette and don’t include the ribbed rows you did. So you do the first inc on the 9th row of the stockinette, then every 6th row after that until you have 114 sts. Stop thinking! lol You’re trying to make it too complicated, and you just follow the patterns steps - 1) make the ribbing, 2) start stockinette, 3) inc on 9th row, 4) in every 6th row.