I have been working a pattern through the Sweater Wizard computer program, and came across an instruction I didn’t quite understand.
It is a V neck sweater…and basically…you are knitting around the neck edge. Stop 2 stitches before the PM (Place Marker, this of course would be at the lowest point in the V), SSK, PM, Knit, K2tog.
I have searched the help files in the program, and the most I can find is that PM means Place Marker…It would make sense to me that for the sake of symmetry, one would ssk, k the pm and then k2tog. But written as above, it seems as if one might slip or move said pm.
I have not read another V neck pattern to know for sure…so I turn to the knowledgeable for help…how would you read that??
You place a marker for your center stitch. So you stop 2 stitches before the center stitch, and SSK, place marker, K1 (this will be the center stitch of your vee), K2tog. Then when you do the following rows you will know where that center stitch is. Of course this is if your pattern didn’t have you place a marker earlier, in that case you would just slip it when you came to it. At least this is the way I read it.
Ok…I am sorry…I still feel a little lost. I am knitting the place markered stitch right?? The same centre stitch is on the place marker the whole time right??
The place marker is placed when you start shaping the neck whilst knitting the front.
The instruction of Place Marker is simply the action of placing the marker itself? Rather than the action of knitting though the placemarkered stitch. Oh my…I am sooo confused.
Welllll… you really wouldn’t carry on with a single stitch in the middle for long. The usual is to decrease on either side and not have a center stitch. Look ahead in the pattern and see if you can figure out where they’re going with this.
Ok…perhaps it is something I have over looked…but now that you say it…that does make a little more sense. This program seems to put things in the most simple forms, and it isn’t always clear.
Ok…I don’t mean to hash this all up again…this place marker is the bain of my existance right now…
So…if I stop 2 st before the centre stitch, ssk, place marker (do I place this marker on the newly ssk stitch?) K1 (which is now the centre stitch), K2Tog.
I don’t know why I am having so much trouble with this instruction, I think is cause I am having trouble visualizing it. I know most patterns make sense once you try to work though them, but to work through that many stitches just to have to go back and fix is frustraiting. (Mainly cause I hate picking up stitches around a neck edge, I always get gaps in varying places).
If I slip the stitch, will I not just be pulling the same stitch upwards the whole time??
Well, if you work it the next row, it won’t be the same stitch all the time. You put the marker on your needle, not your stitch. I would suggest you CO about 30 sts with some scrap yarn, work a couple rows, then pretend you’re at that place in the pattern and just follow the instructions for several rows after that. It may make sense to you once you start knitting the following rows. It may be that you’ll have that center stitch for just a few rows to shape the neckline, then it will be fastened off.
