Increasing problem!

[nannyvik]

Hi All,

I'm in the middle of knitting the 'Bacall' cardigan pattern (Rowan). I've done the back, but I can't get my head around how many I need to increase at the front.

This is what the pattern says:

'Cast on 34 sts. Beg with a K row, work in st st for 2 rows, ending with RS facing for next row' (it's clear so far, then it follows) :

'Working all increases as set by back, inc 1 st at the end of next and foll 9 alt rows, then on 2 foll 4th rows and at same time inc 1 st at beg of 5th and 2 foll 6th rows. 49 sts.
Cont straight until left front matches back to beg of armhole shaping'

The increase for the back follows as:
'K2, M1, K to last 2 sts, M1, K2'.

My problem is the following: I calculated the rows for the front using the numbers given by the tension (22 sts and 28 rows to 10cm), and that gave me 42 rows for the back to reach up to the armhole shaping.
Obviously, I would have to do 42 rows for the front too, to reach the armhole shapings - but if I followed the pattern given, I could do all increases only within 5 rows! This just doesn't add up!

Is there anyone who could shed a light on this?

[suzeeq]

I don't see where you get that you'd only do incs over 5 rows.... or did you mean 5"?

First inc at the end of the next row, and every other row for 10 rows total - that's 10 sts so you'd now have 44 sts. Then inc on every 4th row twice - that's 2 more sts, for 46. You're also to inc at the beg of the 5th row and every 6th row twice which adds another 3 sts to get you to 49. This all takes place over 28 rows, not 42, plus the first 2 rows which would be 30 altogether.

And that does seem to be 5" worth. Do you have a link to the pattern?

[nannyvik]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, I meant I would do the increase through 5 'knit' rows (start with a knit row and do the 2 increases, then a normal purl row without any increase) - that would make 10 rows in total.

Your reply looks great, I will have to think it through, I am a bit slow on this!

Here's the link to the pattern: http://www.woolandbuttons.co.uk/userfiles/Bacall(1).pdf

Thank you!

[salmonmac]

The '. inc 1 st at the end of next and foll 9 alt rows..." is going to take 20 rows (10 knit rows). If you call the next row, row 1 then you would increase at the end or rows 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17, and 19 and at the beginning of rows 5, 11 and 19. After that, there are the increases on the 2 following 4th rows.
Very cute pattern. Thanks for the link.

[suzeeq]

You're doing the incs only on one edge, at the end of the row, not at the beginning too. So that will take 20 knit and purl rows, not 10.

[nannyvik]

Confused now, shall I ignore the first M1 increase for the knit row? The pattern says 'working all increases as set by back'.

Should it look like this:

Row 1: k
Row 2: p
Row 3: K2, M1, K to last 2 sts, M1, K2 increase 1 st - (+3 sts)
Row 4: p
Row 5: K2, M1, K to last 2 sts, M1, K2 increase 1 st - (+3 sts)
Row 6: p
Row 7: K2, M1, K to last 2 sts, M1, K2 increase 1 st - (+3 sts)
Row 8: p
Row 9: K2, M1, K to last 2 sts, M1, K2 increase 1 st - (+3 sts)
Row 10: p
Row 11: K2, M1, K to last 2 sts, M1, K2 increase 1 st - (+3 sts)
Row 12: p
... if I do this, I'll have the 15 sts increase already, and I can't do the 'inc 1 st at end of next and foll 9 alt rows etc..' as I'll have too many stitches.

It is a cute pattern, I wish I understood it better I don't want to get started with the front until I fully understand what I'm doing as this will be a bolero for my wedding!

[suzeeq]

Since it's a cardigan, you only increase on one edge for the front, not both since it's 'half' of the back. The 'as set by back' part seems to refer to increasing 2 sts in from the edge, not that you do them at both ends of the row - the instructions for the front say to inc every other row at the end of the row.

So row 3 would be "K to last 2 sts, M1, K2" and you're only increasing 1 st. The part at the end "increase 1 st" after the knit 2 tells you how many sts are increased, not that you inc in the end. I don't know where you got that from anyway, I don't see it on the pattern anywhere.

[nannyvik]

If you register on www.knitrowan.com, you can get lots of free patterns! It's worth looking, they have some lovely ones!

[suzeeq]

Yes, I get their newsletter and have looked at the patterns.

[nannyvik]

Thank you so much Suzeeq! It seems so obvious now!

I hope it will work out well, I'm using the Rowan kidsilk haze yarn in white as I wanted it to be quite delicate. See how it goes, I was a bit hesitant to double the yarn up (I made some gloves and beret hat with the same yarn before where I had to double up and it came out beautifully).

Thanks again, it's brilliant!