Should I have slipped differently? Now with pictures

[gardenmommy]

In the patten I'm doing for the baby bolero, on the front shaping, you end up putting a lot of stitches on a holder and slipping the last (or first, depending on which side you're working on) stitch...I had slipped as if to purl, but now I have noticed after picking up the stitches around the neck and front that there are some icky holes and I"m just not liking the way it looks...should I have slipped as if to knit to twist that stitch and help close those up? I really don't want to frog it back, (well who does?) but if it would make it look better, I would.

[knitqueen]

Have you worked those stitches already? Knitting through the back loops when you go back to work them would twist the stitches too. I've had some luck with that method when doing socks and picking up stitches for the gusset, it seems to close up those holes nicely.

[gardenmommy]

I'll have to post a picture of them, they didn't really "develop" until after I had picked up and knit the front edging. I also don't like some holes at the shoulders either.

[gardenmommy]

Here are some pictures of the holiness, if that's what I dare call it.

Do you think slipping as if to knit would have cured this?

[Ingrid]

I would think that if the slipping was the problem that you'd have holes all the way across. These look evenly spaced. Did you increase there or something?

[gardenmommy]

For the left front, starting with 103 stitches (after having knit a few rows in stockinette)

Next Row K to last 37 sts, turn and leave these sts on a holder
Next Row Sl 1, p to end
Next Row K to last 10 sts, turn and leave...
Next Row Sl 1, p to end
Next Row K to last 8 sts, turn and leave
Next Row Sl 1, p to end
Next Row K to last 6 sts, turn and leave

and on down to 2 sts, then the shaping for the armhole starts. The right side is similar, although you knit the first 8, 6, 4 sts, put them on the holder (I just knit them onto the holder), K to the end, and on the other side p to the last st then slip it. It never specified how to slip though, as if to knit or purl.

[Ingrid]

The holes come from turning without a wrap. If you do it with very thin yarn you can get a way with it, but I think it was foolish for the pattern to do it where you just turn and slip. That's what your holes are from. They always say the purpose of the wrap is to prevent holes.


I suspect that the designer thought that this way of doing the short rows would be easier than trying to explain short rows, but the end result is something that could have looked a lot nicer with a bit more pattern writing.

If I had to fix it, I'd frog back to where the short rows started and instead of putting them on holders, do real short rows and then knit across one final time to pick up all the wraps. :thinking:

[gardenmommy]

I guess Debbie Bliss didn't want to bother explaining how to prevent holes. :rollseyes:

So instead of putting the X number of stitches on a holder (as directed anyway, I think it comes to a total 67 sts on the holder), just leave them on the needle and do the W&T on the slipped stitches? What about when I get to the decreases for the neck and armhole edges? I'm confoozled.

[Ingrid]

The pattern said this:

Next Row K to last 37 sts, turn and leave these sts on a holder
Next Row Sl 1, p to end
Next Row K to last 10 sts, turn and leave...
Next Row Sl 1, p to end
Next Row K to last 8 sts, turn and leave
Next Row Sl 1, p to end
Next Row K to last 6 sts, turn and leave


Without the pattern in front of me, I can't say for certain about the armholes, but see if this makes sense:

Next Row K to last 37, w&t
Next Row, p to end
Next Row K to last 47 stitches, w&t
Next Row, p to end
Next Row, K to last 55 st, w & t
Next Row p to end
Next row K to last 61 st, w & t (they'll be 6 left at the end so you'll still have 67 stitches
Purl across entire row, picking up wraps.

At this point, you'll have 67 stitches on your needle, short rows completed. The only difference will be that you have one more row where you picked up your wraps so your yarn may be at the wrong edge.

Depending on what you do with these stitches next, you may not even need that extra row. You could possibly pick up the stitches as you work the next part of the pattern that uses these stitches.

So at this point you can pretty much continue as the pattern calls for. Make sense?

[gardenmommy]

Just to make sure, here are the directions for the left front, pertaining to the size I'm making

LEFT FRONT

With US 2 needles, cast on 99 sts
K3 rows
Change to US 3 needles
Next rowK to last 3 sts, m1, K3
Next rowK3, p to end
Rep the last 2 rows 3 times more
103 sts
Here's where the short rows would start
Next rowK to last 37 sts, turn and leave these sts on a holder
Next rowSl 1, p to end
Next rowK to last 10 sts, turn and leave these sts on a holder
Next rowSl 1, p to end
Next rowK to last 8 sts, turn and leave these sts on a holder
Next rowSl 1, p to end
Next rowK to last 6 sts, turn and leave these sts on a holder
Next rowSl 1, p to end
Next rowK to last 4 sts, turn and leave these sts on a holder
Next rowSl 1, p to end
Next rowK to last 2 sts, turn and leave these sts on a holder
Next rowSl 1, p to end
Next rowK to last 2 sts, K2tog
Next rowP2tog, p to end
Rep the last 2 rows twice more, 30 sts
SHAPE ARMHOLE
Next rowBind off 3 sts, K to last 2 sts, K2tog
Next rowP to end
Next rowSkpo, k to last 2 sts, K2tog
Next rowP to end
Rep the last 2 rows 3 times
Keeping armhole edge straight, cont to dec at neck edge on every foll 4th row until 14 sts remain.
Cont straight until front measures same as Back to shoulder, ending at armhole edge
SHAPE SHOULDER
Bind off (which I didn't do, I just left them on a holder to do 3NBO)

Do you think there is a better stitch for the SKPO too?

The right side is just the opposite of course, except you K them THEN put them on a holder and continue to K to the end.[/b][/u]