My first cardigan - what does this line mean!?

[emma1515]

Hi there,

I've been knitting scarves for a while, and wish to move onto my first cardigan. I've found a 'vintage' pattern which I'd like to try, but some of the first instructions are confusing me a little. Here they are... I've highlighted the confusing bits in red.

BACK: With MC and Size 8 needles cast on 85(91-97-101) sts. Work in pat as follows: Row 1: (Right side of work) 0(K 3 - K 6 - K 1), *P 1, K 6, repeat from * across, ending P 1, then 0(K 3 - K 6 - K 1). Row 2: 0(P 3 - P 6 - P 1), *K 1, P 6, repeat from * across, ending K 1, then 0(P 3 - P 6 - P 1) . Repeat these 2 rows for pat.

At first I thought that these were related to the size, but that still doesn't make sense. Is anyone able to translate this for me?

Thanks!

[Jan in CA]

BACK: With MC and Size 8 needles cast on 85(91-97-101) sts. Work in pat as follows: Row 1: (Right side of work) 0(K 3 - K 6 - K 1), *P 1, K 6, repeat from * across, ending P 1, then 0(K 3 - K 6 - K 1). Row 2: 0(P 3 - P 6 - P 1), *K 1, P 6, repeat from * across, ending K 1, then 0(P 3 - P 6 - P 1) . Repeat these 2 rows for pat.

The different numbers at the cast-on are for different sizes. It should have that info listed at the beginning somewhere. It should also have instructions for other parts that are confusing. Do you have a pattern link??

[emma1515]

Thanks for the reply!

It does say that 'These directions are for Size 10. Changes for Sizes 12, 14 and 16 are in parentheses.' I just thought it a little odd that for the largest size (16) the fewest number of stitches were required (K1). And also, the fact that there is a 0 before the bracket, suggests that these instructions should be ignored if knitting for the size 10?

Unfortunately the site won't let me post links as this is my first post!

Emma.

[salmonmac]

The largest size actually requires more sts as you can tell from the cast on. There will be more repeats of the pattern between the asterisks if you're making the largest size so it won't require as many extra sts at the end of the row. And yes, if there's a 0 in the directions for your size, you can skip that set of directions and go on to the next direction.
This may be the link:
http://www.freevintageknitting.com/w...lmin735-3.html
Very good looking cardigan!

[suzeeq]

Yes, the numbers in () are the sts that you knit and purl for the different sizes. When it says K or P 0 for your size, you skip that set of instructions and go to the next one. The bigger sizes may have you work fewer sts than another size in this area in order to fit the stitch pattern. Overall there's more sts for the larger size but the repeated sts of p1, k6 and k1 p6 have different number of k sts between them as 'filler' to even out the number of times you repeat the 7 sts.