Top down jumper circular needles help

Hi! I am trying to knit a sweater for the first time and I’m really struggling to understand the pattern.

I have 100 stitches and placed the following markers: armhole (3 st), shoulder (10 st), armhole (3 st), back (34 st), armhole (3 st), shoulder (10 st), armhole (3 st), back (34 st)

What I don’t understand are the following increase instructions: Continue increasing 1 st before and after the 3 armhole sts (note: knit two stitches in one to increase) as follows:
on the sleeves on every 2nd row: 1 st 28 times, on the body on every 4th row: 1 st 9 times and then on every 2nd row: 1 st 14 times = 304 sts.

So the armhole sections stay the same and we will need to increase 28 st on the first stitch of the “shoulders” sections every 2nd row? How do you even get 28 from 1 st? I thought you only knit two stitches instead of 1 so the increases are one at a time, how do you get the 28? (same question for how to do the 9 and 14 times 1 st for the body)

And alsoif you do 1 st 9 times every 4th row and 1 st 14 times every 2nd row for the body… don’t those overlap?

Any help would be really appreciated, I have been thinking about this for hours and cannot figure it out. Thank you!!

Hello
I have not made a top down sweater yet but can perhaps help you understand the increases in the pattern.

You are correct that you only increase 1 stitch at a time by knitting 2 stitches into 1 stitch (this can be a knit front and back). You are not making 28 stitches out of 1 stitch.

The 1 stitch is increased to make 2, sometimes this is on the sleeve side of the 3 armhole stitches and sometimes it is on the body side of the 3 stitches (front and back of the sweater).

This means increase 1 on every second row
Eg if you call the next row, row 1
Row 1 no increase
Row 2 increase
Row 3 no increase
Row 4 increase
…and you keep going on every other row 28 times, that’s a total of 56 rows.

Every 4th row means rows 1,2,3 have no increase but row 4 has an increase, no increase in 5,6,7 but row 8 has increase. You do this until you have done it 9 times. So these increases are on 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36

These do not over lap. You don’t begin these increases until you have done the 9 increases above (those on every 4th row). The words “and then” mean do the other body instruction first “and then” do these.
These are though at the same time as the sleeve increases which are already happening every 2nd row.
So these are now every 2nd row and continue on from row 36 where you got to with the previous ones.
Rows 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 56, 58, 60, 62, 66, 68
(I think I’ve listed 14 of these)
But note though that these increase continue after you stop doing the sleeve increases because the stop at row 56

Does this make sense?
The sleeves and body increase on different rows and yountrack them at the same time.

Please say if this isn’t clear there is lots of help here.

That makes a lot of sense!!! But then where does the 304 st come from?

I had 100 st

  • 112 st for the sleeves (counting that you increase before and after each of the armholes that’s +4 st x 28 increasing rows)
  • 52 st for the body (+4 x the 9 rows)
  • 36 st for the body (+4 x the 14 rows)

That’s 300, right? For only a miss of 4 st I’m very willing to let it go but I’m trying to understand it fully. You have been a ton of help, thank you so much!!

Welcome to the forum!
What is the name of your pattern?

Usually with top down sweaters the increases at sleeves, and front and back occur at the same time. Some may be every 2nd row and some may be every 4th row. Indeed, you’re correct, they do overlap so that on some rows you’ll be increasing at both sleeves, and at front and back.

4 x 28 = 112
4 x 9 = 36
4 x 14 = 56
Total increase 204
100 + 204 = 304

You just mixed up the numbers a bit. The 4 stitches are not missing. Does it make sense?

Hi! I’m doing this pattern --> https://www.katia.com/uk/womens-set-knitting-pattern-intermediate-8032-406-g there’s a free pattern

You are absolutely right and wow I knew math wasn’t my strong suit but that’s bad even for me. Thank you so much for all your help! I’m so excited to get this project started :smiley:

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Glad to help.
It would be lovely to see your progress when you get going, if you can post a photo. I’ve never made a top down sweater and have it on my mind to try one.

Knitting maths is so easy to get tripped up on. I had a problem for days and days because I was unable to correctly count to 3!!
You can be good at maths and understand the pattern and still get caught out by the numbers.

Hope it goes well.

Sure thing! If all goes according to plan and I can finish it without any more issues I’ll come back here and post a picture :slight_smile: The pattern I’m following is free by the way if you wanted to try your hand making it! Thanks again

I finished it!

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And very well done! What great colors and beautiful knitting. Thanks very much for the photo.

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Fabulous! It looks great.
I like the look of the yarn, is it cotton?
Thanks for posting a photo it’s great to see how all the knitting maths works out.

That is one nice jumper

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Thank you! It’s a mix of acrylic and wool