I am having trouble executing short rows in the Irish moss stitch. The pattern is Rows 1&2 K1 P1 and Rows 3&4 P1 K1. I am trying to do short rows to shape the shoulders of the back and 2 front pieces of a sweater I’m knitting. I am using the wrap and turn method to make the short rows. I’m having a lot of trouble executing this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Is it even possible to make short rows in the Irish moss stitch? Will it look good? I wanted to eliminate the stair steps made at binding off the three sections as well as be able to do a 3 needle bind off at the shoulders. Help, please!!
Short rows in Irish Moss stitch
It’s a bit of a problem to work the short rows in moss stitch. Because of the join between the extra rows and the short rows you end up with 2 knits or 2 purls next to each other.
You can see the disruption in the photo of seed stitch about halfway down this page.
You can work short rows for the sloped shoulder. Work the given number of sts for the stairstep bind off but w%t instead. On the last row work across all the shoulder sts picking up the wraps. The live sts can then be used for 3 needle bind off.
This method is basically the same idea except a bit more complicated at the last row.
https://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/FEATpatterns103.html
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Thank you very much for all your effort to help me. The articles you attached are very instructive. I’m wondering if I should write out for myself detailed stitch instructions for each row to guide me so I knit the moss stitch with short rows as flawlessly as possible. I think that will be my next approach. Again, you’ve been very kind and very helpful. Thank you.
One question - what does “w%t” mean please?
W&T is wrap and turn. I suspect the % was a typo or corrected wrongly by the device it was typed on lol.
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Thank you so much!