Where do I go wrong placing my stripe?

I am knitting the marseille sweater by Petite knit. It is the type of sweater where you cast on for the back, knit up to the neck band, work the shoulders independently, join the join shoulders, finish the front yoke…etc

It is also a striped sweater. Starting with the back yoke, you knit some short rows and then knit regularly until a certain length. Then you add your first stripe. Then you continue knitting in the main color until a certain total length. Then you begin the shoulders and neckhole shaping.

IMG_8592

I made sure that my measurements between cast-on edge and stripe (purple line), and cast-on edge and back of the neck hole (green line) matched the pattern. However, I have joined my shoulders and neck, and it instructs me to knit a stripe in the exact same place as the back yoke by counting the number of rows along the armhole.

I drew red lines where the shoulders begin, and so where I think the armhole is halved and the back/front is delineated. To me, it looks like my first stripe is really high on my back. And there’s no way to join it in the front where it matches evenly, because by the time I’ve joined the shoulders and the neck - we are way past where the stripe is on the back.

In what way did I misunderstand the instructions?

Hello
I think you’ve almost got it, only you’ve marked up red at the beginning of the shoulder section rather than half way along it. The shoulder is a panel so it’s half way point is not the beginning. A simple mistake.
b925f38540e8f4fc599184e790056c729665874a~2

In this copy I’ve marked a similar red line to yours, but on the front, the end of the shoulder section. On the back yours is in line with the neck stitches on hold, on mine it’s in line with the new neck stitches just made.

The lower yellow line I have put on is where you count the rows of stockinette worked straight, after the stripe and before the neck hole and shoulder shaping.
The top yellow line is where you will work the same number of straight rows after the new neck stitches and after the shoulder shaping - so yellow is worked straight in main colour, then change to second colour to work your stripe.

In some patterns the shoulders seam at the top and this is where the half way mark is on the armhole but in this piece there is no seam, imagine the seam being half way through the shoulder shaping and half way through the neck - so not the beginning of shoulder shaping.

Does this help?
Please ask again if this is not clear or you don’t feel its right.

Lovely sweater.

I just found the sweater on ravelry

You are correct in commenting that your back stripe is very high up. The photos of this project all have a larger section of main colour, the stripe lower down, closer to the bottom of the armhole.
Perhaps you want to revisit the measurements and pattern for this sizing and and position of the stripe before you continue?
You may need to frog this section and rework it and it would be a shame to work more now and find out later, thennhave more to frog or stripes where you don’t want them.

If you need to post a line or two from the pattern to get help with positioning the stripe that would be OK.

2 Likes

It turns out that I went wrong is that I continued knitting my shoulders from where I was on the back panel, rather than stopping and picking up from the cast on edge! Big whoops, can’t believe I fubbed that as big as I did. I ripped it all out and have started over, thank god yarn can be reused!

2 Likes

It’s always annoying to have to undo a large section but at least you know where it went wrong and can remake it. It will be well worth it, the shoulder shaping looks so nicely designed.