Stuck on Tilted Duster pattern -- can someone help?

austingirl · 09-09-2007, 11:56 AM

I'm working on the tilted duster from the latest Interweave Knits, and this is my first sweater. I'm trying to finish the shoulder/neck shaping, and the pattern says:

At each neck edge, BO 5 sts 2 times, and at the same time, BO 4 sts at each shoulder edge 2 times - no sts rem.

I'm confused. Right now I have kind of two sets of stitches -- the shoulder parts on either side of the neck, and each has its own ball of yarn. The neck sts have already been bound off. So I have one ball of yarn ready to be worked close to the neck on one side, and another ball ready to be worked close to the shoulder on the other side. Hope that makes sense. So I can start at either the neck part or the shoulder part, and I'm going to assume that I start at the neck edge since that's the first thing the pattern mentions.

I'm guessing a proper course of action might be to BO 5 sts at the neck edge, knit to end. Turn, BO 4 shoulder sts, knit to end. Turn, BO 5 neck sts, knit to end, turn, BO 4 shoulder sts, and I'll have BO'ed everything in this section. Then I repeat on the other side.

Does this sound right? Sorry if it's so confusing!

Ingrid · 09-09-2007, 05:16 PM

It does sound right. You can't bind off at the end of the row, so you have to do it at the beginning at whatever edge you happen to be starting on.

austingirl · 09-09-2007, 05:18 PM

Thank you so much!! I was so confused. Thanks for helping me move on with my sweater.

austingirl · 09-17-2007, 02:54 AM

So, I still need help if anyone can offer it. I did what I mentioned above and the sides were uneven. So I undid everything and am now back to having 18 sts on each side, ready to bind off. I'm not sure what's wrong. I have a couple of hypotheses.

The pattern says to knit this part with straight needles but I'm knitting with circs. Could this be causing confusion somehow?
On one side, the yarn is in a position where I'll bind off the neck sts first, but on the other, the yarn is in position where I'll bind off shoulder sts first. Could this be a problem?

I REALLY appreciate any help. I don't know anyone IRL who knits. :(

suzeeq · 09-17-2007, 03:17 AM

As long as you're knitting back and forth, it doesn't matter about the needles. Patterns of this type may have one more row on one shoulder, but that's normal. It won't be noticeable once everything's seamed up and finished.

austingirl · 09-17-2007, 04:58 PM

Hm. The problem seems to be that the sides don't look symmetrical -- that couldn't be right, right?

suzeeq · 09-17-2007, 05:02 PM

Don't look symmetrical how? Do you mean the decreases aren't the same?

austingirl · 09-17-2007, 07:26 PM

Yes, maybe. I just don't see how they couldn't be the same because I did the exact same thing on both sides. Ugh.