I am doing the Smocked Cable Coat that was in the Fall 2010 Vogue http://www.vogueknitting.com/Portals/VK/corrections/VKF10/VKF10_20.jpg

I am working on the fronts and I'm unclear on how to reverse the neck shaping for the right front.

The pattern is worked even ending with row 4 or 10 of the chart pattern (http://www.vogueknitting.com/Portals/VK/charts/2010/VKF10/VKF10_20c.pdf)

The directions for the neck shaping on the left side are:
Row 1 (WS) Bind off 11 sts, work to end
Row 2 (RS) K to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1
Row 3 Bind off 4 sts, p to the last st, k1
Row 4 K to the first cable, work 8-st cable, then over next cable, work (k2tog) twice from the cn
Row 5 Bind off 3 sts, work to end
Rows 6 and 8 K to the last 5 sts (k2tog) twice, k1
Rows 7 and 9 Bind off 2 sts, work to end
Row 10 K to the cable, then k2tog, k2 and k2tog, k2 from cn
Row 11 Bind off 1 st, work to end
Row 12 Knit

I understand that for the first 2 rows I would work them on the opposite side. I'm totally confused after that. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Reversing shaping is just doing the BO and decs at the other edge. You can't BO at the end of a row, so you have to do that at the beg of the WS row. The decs can be done at the end though. This looks like you have it on both ends of the row.

I made this cardigan also and I love it, but like many Vogue patterns it either has mistakes (i.e. the initial chart for the smocking) or klutsy directions.
For the right front, row 3 is on the RS so you can just bind off 4sts as you bound off the 11 sts in row 1 and knit to the end.
For row 4, you are on the WS, so I just worked the cable from the WS, checking the RS to make sure that the cable was twisting in the correct direction. Work the next cable purling 2tog twice from the cable needle. It works out fine and actually lots of this is hidden under the collar.

You know, on second thought, doing the cable on the WS would throw off the number of rows between the cable crosses. I think what I must have done was follow the bind offs at the neck edge and do the k2tog over the cables on the nearest cable cross (row 1 or 7 of the chart). Sorry for the confusing reply above. I really shouldn't do anything without a cup of coffee in the morning.

I tried to write it out but realized the cables would be on the WS so you're probably right, you need to do the cables on the same row as the dec. It's easier to dec on a RS row anyway.

Thanks for the help. Glad to know I wasn't the only person that was confused by it. I think I managed to fumble my way through it.

Now onto the sleeves!

:D

You know, I think "fumble your way through it" would sometimes be a better pattern direction than most. If you know where you're going, you can just ad lib your way there. The sleeves are a breeze after the fronts!