BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Knitting help!!

I am trying to knit a split collar pullover. I've gotten as far as completing the ribbing on the back waist. Now the instructions say "dec 1(inc 1-dec 1- dec 1- inc 1) st on last WS row. What type of decrease is used? Any ideas? This is only my second project.

Thanks!

Please see http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/518.asp and let me know if you need more help.

Wow, I'm not at all sure what that pattern is telling you to do. It sounds like you're increasing and decreasing at the same time, which would, of course, not change the size of the piece at all.

But about decreases, there are a couple of different ways you can do that. The easiest is just to knit two stitches together, and if they don't give you more specific directions than that, it's probably what they intended. A fancier decrease that adds a little textural interest is a psso, where you slip a stitch over without knitting it, knit the next stitch, and then pass the slipped stitch over the knitted one and drop it off the needle (try it, it's not as complicated as it sounds). The slipped stitch leaves a pretty diagonal in your knitting that's particularly nice for decreasing on v-necks or cardigans.

Hope that helps! Post again if you want more information.

Becky

It may also be a lace pattern, where you are creating the "open spaces" by your increases and at the same time keeping the same number of stitches by decreasing (hope that made some sense)

Becky, do you find yourself using psso? I love it, and I think it makes my socks look so much more-- well, regal and refined to me. I don't see a lot of knitting these days using the psso, but whenever I see ssk, I psso.

Yes, I do like to use psso. I think it looks clean. But I recently discovered that I knit differently than most American knitters (in spite of the fact that I live right here in Middle America!), and my stitches are on the needle "backwards" or Eastern style. So some of the things I do, like psso, don't look like everyone else's. I slant differently. But I still think that psso is a very tidy way to decrease stitches.

I have to say, it was very freeing the day I realized that, if I like to do something like psso for a decrease, or some other minor to moderate change to the pattern, I can do it! For a long time I was really bound by the directions, but I'm just not as rigid a knitter as I used to be. I figure, hey--they're my sweaters!

Could someone help with these instructions: insert needle under strand and into next st and K as 1 st.
I thought at first it was another way of saying knit two together, but there are no provisions for increasing stitches so it can't be right. The row before and after is a straight purl. Thanks.

I answered in another post. If possible can you tell me what pattern you are working on and if there is a picture online somwhere ?