What does "reverse shaping" mean?????

[knitcindy]

I've never knit a garment before (besides a hat). I want to knit myself a vest, but when I look at vest patterns online, they almost ALL say

Work Right Front as corresponding to Left Front, reversing shaping.

What does this mean?? Are there any free online patterns that have the directions for BOTH sides written out step-by-step for a beginning garment maker???

Thanks!
knitcindy

[suzeeq]

I don't know of many patterns that do write out both sides. Basically it means do the BOs and decs at the other edge of the front.

For the L front you probably bound off a few sts at the beg of a RS row for the underarm, then decreased right above them. For the R front you can't BO at the end of a row, so you need to BO on the WS row to put the underarm at the other edge. Then you can dec at the end of the RS rows instead of at the beg.

[cftwo]

This means that instead of decreasing on a right side row (for example), you'd decrease on a wrong-side row so that you get two mirror-image halves of your vest.

For beginner sweater patterns, I recommend Patons "next steps" books. You can often find them for about $5 at Michael's or JoAnn's. Book 2 is for pullovers (and they have vests) and book 3 is for cardigans (which also has vests). All the patterns are rated "easy".

Book 2: http://www.patonsyarns.com/patternbook.php?PBS=500837

Book 3: http://www.patonsyarns.com/patternbook.php?PBS=500838

[knitcindy]

Thanks so much cftwo!!!

I forgot that I have those 2 booklets in my pattern box (in the bottom of my closet). I'll have to dig them out and take a closer look at them!!!

I might just get started on this sooner than I thought!!

knitcindy