....some help from an knitting expert???

homealone_2

i recently started knitting again after a break of about 20 years. after knitting endless scarves, baby clothes for a neonatal unit (hats and bootees mainly) i went on to knit a jumper for me. nothing fancy couldnt be more unfancy, have used all the little bits of wool lying around, all different colours and even knotted colours together and left knot on front as part of feature. well anyway i have made jumpers before and as long as it didnt involve decreasing while knitting in a pattern i was fine. however what i have is a front, a back and 2 short raglan sleeves. i have just read instructions for neck edging and to make up and i dont understand, could someone please put it in simple english for me please, am desperate, have spent hours on it as i am a size 20 and have used 2 3/4 size needles so you can imagine the time i have spent on it anyway this is what it says to do:

NECK EDGING

join raglan seams, leaving left back raglan open. (what???) with right side facing, using no. 12 (2 3/4 mm) needles, k1. (p1,k1) 18 times across left sleeve, p1 (k1, p1) 42 times across front, k1, (p1, k1) 17 times across right sleeve p1, (k1. p1) 42 times across back 244 sts. rib 3 rows. cast off in rib

TO MAKE UP

press as given on ball band. join left back raglan seam and row-ends of neck edging (seriously what ???) join side and sleeve seams


any help would be gratefully received or i have visions of 4 pieces of knitting being used as a door stop!!

nearlyrich

It's ages since I did any knitting but I think you join all the bits leaving the last seam open so you can knit the neck band as a straight piece of knitting rather than as a round.


Once the neck band has been knitted you can then join the back seam and the neck edges together to finish.

Hope that helps, if you were here I would draw it to show you !

Savvy_Sue

Yup, I think what you have to do is lay your jumper pieces out flat on a table and join the tops of the sleeves to the armholes of the front and back, all apart from the back seam of the left shoulder. (Raglan is where the top of the sleeve comes all the way up to the neck, isn't it?) Then you 'pick up' stitches from the edges of the neck, 18 of them on the left sleeve, 42 across the front, 17 on the right sleeve and 42 across the back. I think all you have to do to pick up a stitch is stick your needle through the cast off edge and use the loop to knit as you would normally.

If you were anywhere near my mum, I'd send you round to see her: she's a right knitwit!

But seriously, can you get into the local wool shop? Bet they'd help you!

Good luck!

Pink.

Hi homealone,

We have lots of knitters on our Old Style board, so I've moved your thread over there to see if you can get more help.

Pink

pol

First off, well done on getting so far on such small needles, that's a LOT of knitting! I'm not great at computer stuff, but I'll do my best to explain it.

join raglan seams, leaving left back raglan open. (what???) this means joining all the sleeve seams, except the one on your back left*with right side facing, (means the front of the garment) using no. 12 (2 3/4 mm) needles, k1. (p1,k1) 18 times(=36 st)across left sleeve whatever is in brackets you do the X number of times p1 (k1, p1) 42 (=84 sts)times across front, k1, (p1, k1) 17 (=34 sts)times across right sleeve p1, (k1. p1) 42 times (=84 sts) across back 244 sts. rib 3 rows. cast off in rib
Join left back raglan seam and row-ends of neck edging (seriously what ???) the ends of the rows you have just knitted up (4 rows) join side and sleeve seams

So - you pick up from the front of the front at the left and knit across to the right sleeve, across that, across the back from right to left and across the left sleeve, all with the right side facing you.
* you don't need to actually join any seams to begin with, (I don't). Just pick up as normal, and join all the seams later. You just go along with different bit os knitting hanging off your needle till you cast off.
You have completed the biggest part, don't give up now! Hope you can understand this, if you lived near me I could show you, but......

pol

Churchmouse

Used to knit a lot before the arthritis nabbed my fingers! The above sound crystal clear to me, but then I do know what the instructions mean!! My only contribution would be to say that in order to get the neckband even it really helps to divide up the front/back when you pick-up. For example place a marker at the halfway point, then two more at the quarter and three-quarter points. Divide the total number of stitches for the bit you're working on by four and you know how many to pick-up in each section. So if you need 84 stitches across the front each quarter will need 21. It saves a lot of heartache or you can get to the end needing to squeeze in far more stitches than there's space for, or having to really space them out! Hope this hasn't confused things further! Good luck and well done so far!!