Stitch pattern questions

#1

i have a question. I have never used a stitch pattern just on it’s own to make anything, but I got a great book that has over 300 patterns in it, but it’s lacking one thing, the general explanation of what the beginning of the pattern means. the part where it says " multiple of 2 +1" or etc. I don’t get it.
For example, I am working on an oddball blanket. There are 96 stitches to work with. How the heck do I figure out what would work as a stitch pattern for that?
I’m sure this is a dumb question for all you out there, but my brain just doesn’t get this one:shrug:

#2

Your pattern is comprised of two (2) stitches and in order to see the design you need to repeat those two stitches a certain number of times. For your pattern multiply 2 to a number as close as possible to the number you require (e.g. 2x22=44, 2x25=50, etc.) then add one (1), which is the selvage stitch (45, 51, etc.). The 96 stitches required for the odd ball blanket you are working on would either need another type of stitch pattern (i.e. an even number stitch pattern) or you could tweak the blanket pattern and either use ([B]2[/B] x [B]48[/B] = 96 + [B]1[/B]) [B]97[/B] or ([B]2[/B] x [B]47[/B] = 94 + [B]1[/B]) [B]95[/B] stitches instead of the quoted 96. HTH.
Katrina

#3

Thanks Mysterygyrl. I think I kinda had that figured, but like most math for me my brain was resisting. I kept second guessing myself.
That helped hearing it from someone else.:muah:

#4

The extra stitch is not always the selvedge' st as in the border st, many times it's actually a part of the pattern. For instance, say the pattern repeat is yo, k2tog. On one row it may start k1, (yo, k2tog) repeat what's in the () to end of row. Then purl back, but on the next row, it may be (yo, k2tog) repeat to last st, k1. The border sts would be extra to this. Basically themult X sts + y’ means you multiple the X however many times then add the y sts. So if you want a width of 96 sts, you would subtract any edge sts (lets say 6, 3 each side) which is 90, then subtract 1 = 89 and you can see this won’t work. But you can CO 97 sts and it would work fine.