What Does K8, K2together Mean?

[cbkirby]

My pattern says to "K8, K2together to end of row." There are 70 stitches on my needle. How do I work this? Thanks for any help.

[bobi1218]

You would knit 8 stitches, then knit the next 2 stitches together as one. Repeat until you reach the end of the row - 7 times. You'll have 63 stitches on your needle at the end of the row.

[MrsDavis3]

You're decimating the row! Knit 8 stitches. Knit the next 2 together as one. Knit another 8 stitches. Knit the next 2 together as one. Keep doing it all across the row. You're decreasing one out of every ten, just like the Roman generals did to punish a legion of soldiers: go down the line, kill every tenth man. Since you are starting with seven groups of seven, you'll have 63 at the end.

[cbkirby]

You would knit 8 stitches, then knit the next 2 stitches together as one. Repeat until you reach the end of the row - 7 times. You'll have 63 stitches on your needle at the end of the row.

How do you know to do that? I would have knit the first 8 stitches and then knit 2 together with the remaining 62 stitches ending with a total of 39 stitches.

[cbkirby]

You're decimating the row! Knit 8 stitches. Knit the next 2 together as one. Knit another 8 stitches. Knit the next 2 together as one. Keep doing it all across the row. You're decreasing one out of every ten, just like the Roman generals did to punish a legion of soldiers: go down the line, kill every tenth man. Since you are starting with seven groups of seven, you'll have 63 at the end.

I'm still confused. How do I know to repeat across the row instead of knitting the first 8 and then knitting 2 together across the remaining 62?

[suzeeq]

The instructions were a little unclear, should have been better punctuation, but mostly I guess we know that from experience.

[nonny2t]

Trust them, they are right on with the instructions. This instruction pops up a great deal on patterns so you will get used to seeing it and after having done it a few times, you will be an old hat at it! You can do it!!!!

70, knit 8, k2 tog leaves, 69, knit 8, kn 2tog leaves 68, knit 8, kn 2 tog, leave 67, knit 8, kn 2 tog leave, 66, knit 8, knit 2 tog leaves 65, knit 8 , etc. When you knit 2 together, you still have a stitch instead of 2 so you are only getting rid of one stitch not two. I think what may be confusing you is you are possibly seeing the knit 2 tog as getting rid of 2 stitches but when you do the actual knitting 2 together, you will see that by doing the knitting two together, you still have a stitch on your needle. I hope that is not clear as mud. I just know that when I was a newbie, stuff like this, though simple used to throw me into a tail spin.

[Silver]

Does the pattern say how many stitches you'll have left for the next row? Is this pattern online somewhere?

[knitasha]

CBkirby -- The instructions really are ambiguous and yes, it would be nice if they told you how many stitches you are left with.

But if you interpret them the second way, decreasing every stitch but the first 8, you'd have a very odd-looking piece of knitting -- tightly bunched up with a small flat section at one end.

I don't know what you're knitting, but I suspect it isn't supposed to look like that.

You can only "trust the pattern" to a certain extent. After that, you need to count on common sense and experience.

If you're still not convinced, try it both ways. If the first way looks weird, unknit the row and do it the other way. Call it a learning experience.

[MrsDavis3]

A lot of the time you will see
*K8, K2tog
and then "repeat from asterisk" however many times, or to the end of the row

UNLESS they actually mean for you to knit 8 and then knit 2 together over and over until the end of the row, which would be unusual but not impossible.

What are you making?