saartje's headache

[kolloft21]

i'm trying to finish saartje's booties for my unborn baby, and i'm am sooo confused. i am having difficulty getting the 51 stitches at the end of the 8th row. i end up with more. please help me.

[salmonmac]

It should be an increase of 4sts each in rows 2 and 4 and 6sts each in rows 6 and 8 so if you're making the smaller size, that's 51sts. The increases near the markers are shaping the toe. You could look and see if you can tell where the extra sts are although this may not be so obvious in garter stitch. Depending on how many extra stitches you have, make sure you're only doing 8 rows and haven't put in an extra row. If it's only one or two extra, leave out the kfb at either end of the last row and continue on.
You can check the kfb and backward loop increases if you need just to make sure you aren't somehow adding an extra loop.
http://members.home.nl/tdpj/Patronen...%20bootees.pdf
It's a very sweet pattern. Congratulations on the baby!

[kolloft21]

thank you. so i just want to be sure. for each kfb that is 2 sts, and 1 for each m1. is it a m1r and m1l that has to be done?

[salmonmac]

You'll use one stitch to do a kfb and end up with 2sts in place of the one st. That's an increase of one stitch. The backwards loop that the pattern recommends occurs between stitches resulting in an increase of one st.

[kolloft21]

i feel like a big dummy. thank soo much. so let me see if i got this right. for every kfb that you get 2sts for counts as 1?

[Jan in CA]

Kfb is an increase that makes two stitches. It will count as two.

[kolloft21]

thats my the point i'm trying to resolve. it states that you start with 31 and sts, and when you get to the 8th row you should have 51 sts.

let's see... you start out with 31 sts.


row 2 has 2xkfb and 2xm1 (+4) = 35 total
row 4 has 2xkfb and 2xm1 (+4) = 39 total
row 6 has 2xkfb and 4xm1 (+6) = 45 total
row 8 has 2xkfb and 4xm1 (+6) = 51 total

but if each kfb is 2 sts then for row 2 you don't get 4 sts you get 6 sts and so on. by the 8th row you will have 28 sts plus 31 thats 59 sts. what am i missing here?

[salmonmac]

Yes, you're right, this is the way the increases go.

row 2 has 2xkfb and 2xm1 (+4) = 35 total
row 4 has 2xkfb and 2xm1 (+4) = 39 total
row 6 has 2xkfb and 4xm1 (+6) = 45 total
row 8 has 2xkfb and 4xm1 (+6) = 51 total

See if the video linked to above is a help with the kfb. You start with one stitch on the left needle, knit into the front of that stitch and then swing the right needle around to knit into the back of the stitch, then drop the stitch off the left needle. You now have 2sts on the right needle. A kfb isn't 2sts, a kfb turns one stitch into 2sts which is an increase of one stitch over the previous number.

[suzeeq]

The kfb uses 1 stitch, but you get 2 sts out of it; some european patterns call it 'knit twice in the next stitch'. So 2 kfb in a row adds 2 sts to the original sts, plus 2 m1s and you get 4 new sts on rows 2 and 4.

[kolloft21]

the light finally went on, THANK YOU my God that was frustrating. my next question is when you get to row 25 it states to knit 10 then cast on 14sts to the right needle. After the cast on do you then continue to knit the remaining sts that are still on the left needle??