BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Knitting What Does "Wrap Next Stitch" Mean?

I am a teenager, and so most people might not expect me to know much about knitting, but I've been knitting since I was about 5. I've made sweaters and many other things, and I've never really had a problem with patterns. But now, I'm working on a sweater for my mother and I cannot figure out what it means. I talked to my grandmother about it (I usually use her as a knitting dictionary) and even she doesn't know. I've looked on the internet and couldn't find the help I need, and then I found this site and I'm hoping I can get some help! Any advice would be great....

The problem I'm having has to do with shaping the shoulders of the sweater. It's the back side (the only side I've worked on so far) and it tells me to P16, then wrap next st, turn work, and K16.
What does it mean when I have to wrap work? Do I have to wrap the yarn around the needle? It tells me to do this a few times, then to pick up the wraps when I'm done. I don't know what it means to pick up the wraps.
Also, it tells me to purl on a knit side, and knit on a purl side, which completely ruins the whole look of the sweater. The pictures don't show the shoulders looking different...what is going on?

~Addison

hi,

Welcome to the site and it's good to see younger people knitting too! I have been a knitter since I was very small too.

What the pattern is describing is short rowing and the reason you wrap the stitch is to prevent a hole forming at the shoulder.

What you do is purl 16, take the yarn back between the needles as if to knit, slip the next stitch onto the right hand needle, bring the yarn forward between the needles into the purl position and slip the stitch back onto the left hand needle. Then turn and knit back across your 16 stitches.

By the time you've done this the number of times the pattern suggests, you'll find each wrapped stitch has a little loop of yarn around it from the wrap. If you knit this loop and the stitch you slipped together, then you'll find that the wrap is virtually invisible. Wrapping by the way works the same from the knit side - you put the yarn forward as if to purl, slip the next stitch and then put the yarn back as if to knit and slip the stitch back onto the left hand needle.

I would follow your instincts when it comes to continuing the stocking stitch look - patterns are not always correct!