collars and cuffs
 

Hi :)

So, I'm almost done with the main bits of a cardy for mom. It's a very plain, garter stitch, modified drop shoulder thing and I want to make it more attractive by adding a nice collar (it's V-neck) and cuffs and maybe something to pretty up the hem too because it's a bit rough in a nice contrasting yarn.

Thing is, I have no idea how to do this :P Do you guys know a website with instructions for knitting nice collars (which dummy-friendly instructions)? Same with the rest.

Thank you :):hug:

Generally, you pick up sts around the neck and at the cuffs. It's much easier than knitting them separately and sewing them on. You could do ribbing, lace, lace rib, seed, or whatever. Check out stitch patterns at Lion brand yarn's website, knitonthenet.com or knittingpatterncentral.com. There's a video for picking up stitches here under the Advanced Techniques tab.

My AHA moment when I read this, though I should have thought of it sooner. When I started knitting again as a newbie newbie [I'm only a single newbie now :)], I tried an older baby sweater pattern. I had to sew together 7 pieces (front, back, sleeves, collar, and buttonhole). What a pain! Not sure that can be done for buttonholes though, since the knitting will be going the wrong way.

What I did for a top down cardigan is pick up sts along the fronts and neck and knit garter st bands. Buttonholes don't really take much beyond k2tog yo (or k2tog, yo twice, k2tog) for most button sizes. It doesn't really matter if they go veritcally or horizontally.