HELP! Shoulder help needed

[twiggyann]

I'm making a top down vest that started with a provisional cast on. First I did the back. Then after doing the back, I am told to pick up stitches from the provisional cast on for the left front. Then it says join at the neck edge and purl across. This is where I run into problems. If I am working on the left front and join at the neck edge, I'm on the RS of the knitting, not the wrong side. Unless, of course I'm all turned around.

Here's a picture of the vest laid out on the floor with the right side facing. The coral yarn is my provisional cast on. On the left, of the picture the stitches I picked up for the left front, are on cable (hence the no coral yarn).

Questions:

1. Am I correct that that would be the left side for the front? I'm 99.999% sure I'm correct.
2. The neck edge would be the part of those stitches closest to the coral yarn, right? Again, I'm pretty sure (but not as sure) that I'm correct.

Assuming that I'm correct, I am really confused. Purling would then be on the right side and not the wrong side. The shoulders will be shaped with short rows. The directions say.

Purl across.
Knit across.
Then it starts the short row shaping so that the end that starts the short row shaping will have more rows than the side that doesn't start it. It makes sense to me that the short row shaping should start closest to the center of the vest, but I've never done shoulders like that. Am I correct on that thought?

This vest is for my husband and his office is always cold and he wants it sooner rather than later, so any help would be appreciated.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.

[Ingrid]

It should be the left front as your wear it, not as it faces you. In that case you would purl if you start at the neck edge. That's where your problem is, I think.

Short row shaping will taper the shoulders so that there are fewer rows at the shoulder side than the neck side.

[twiggyann]

Thanks, Ingrid. But if this is the back, wouldn't the left front be attached to the left of this piece?

Because, pretending that someone in front of me is wearing this back piece, their left front would be to the left. Correct?

I'm so confused!

[Ingrid]

I'm sorry I misunderstood. When you said that you did the back, I was thinking that this now in the picture was the front.

Let's start over. If the picture is of the right side facing up, then, yes, that would be the left shoulder of the back. Right? I mean, correct?

Maybe there is a mistake in the pattern. What if you just do it on the other side? What do the directions say for the right shoulder--my bet is to do reverse shaping from the left.

I would start on the other shoulder so I wouldn't get confused with the pattern, especially if they refer to neck edge and outer edge or something like that. This way you can purl when they say purl and knit when they say knit. I hope I'm clear. It seems that there wouldn't be confusion if the pattern said right shoulder.

That's really nice yarn, what is it?

[twiggyann]

The directions for the right side just say reverse all shaping.

Thanks so much for letting me know I wasn't completely losing my mind.

The yarn is Filatura di Crossa 501 in the 1272 colorway. This is my first project using "expensive" yarn so that's even more reason for me to want this vest to come out good.

[Silver]

Not to impugn Ingrid's favorite quote, but this is why I don't "trust the pattern" all the time. Pattern writers make mistakes, plus I notoriously alter patterns here and there to make more sense or just get the result *I* think works best. (Not that I alter all patterns, just some.)

All with no regrets. Do what YOU think makes more sense. You're a VERY GOOD knitter. Trust yourself Twig.

[twiggyann]

Thanks for validating my thoughts on this one.

I'm not sure at all about my ability to figure out this sort of stuff because I haven't knit many pieces of clothing. I get nervous about my ability to "understand."