Let me start by saying that I don’t have some big vendetta against Bernat or anything. I am just venting a frustration that I’m sure other knitters have faced.
I’m a fairly new knitter, and I recently undertook my first cardigan. A co-worker of mine had been doing some spring cleaning and found a four page pattern book from Bernat featuring four different sweaters/cardigans to be knit with bulky yarn. She gave it to me, and I started right away on the cardigan. It was going well, and I was happy with how fast it was knitting up in the bulky yarn. The cardigan is made in five pieces that are then seamed together: back, two sleeves, left front and right front. After completing the left front, I was ready to move on to the right, but the only instructions for the right front were, “Work to correspond to left front”. Wait, what? But this is the side that the button holes go, and I need some guidance! I turned the page, frantically looking for more details, but the only hint regarding the button holes was, “Make seven button holes, evenly spaced, the last one to be in the neckband”. How do you make a button hole? Oh no…is this going to become yet another abandoned project that I started, not realizing that it was above my skill level? Well, I was determined to finish it, so I took my pattern, and finished pieces down to our local yarn store and asked the lady for help. She helped me write out the right side instructions…button holes included.
Now, while I was irritated with Bernat for not giving me clear instructions for the right (which I still need as a new knitter), I did learn a valuable lesson. Always read through the instructions before starting a project.
The cardigan did turn out beautifully, and I am currently using it as my spring coat 
Sarah
The free patterns that are provided by yarn companies are often abbreviated/brief.
That said, most patterns…
- don’t give buttonhole instructions.
- don’t give reverse side shaping instructions.
Unless…
- they want a SPECIFIC buttonhole.
- they are very nice.
I suggest you get use to this as you will find many more patterns that say…
- Place X buttonholes over Y distance ending at Z.
- Reverse shaping and work second side as the first.
That isn’t uncommon. Many patterns expect you to have some basic knowledge. That’s why we are here though to help out and learn. Nothing wring with Bernat.
Moved your post since it was in the wrong forum. The Blog forum is just for blog threads and is often overlooked so questions get answered better in other forums.
This was NEWS to me. Glad you wrote the post.