Help! "Work each stitch as it appears"?????

[Jessbreath]

Hi! I'm new here this is my first post! I have been confused about this for as long as I've been knitting (three years). I have this wonderful book called "Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns" (Here's the amazon link http://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Knitt.../dp/1402727631)

It has a plethora of amazing beautiful patterns that can be incorporated into scarves, sweaters, pillows, afghans, you name it! The problem is that a lot of the patterns have this pesky instruction that says "Work each stitch as it appears on this side of the work k the k stitches and p the p stitches". Okay, so this seems simple enough, so I would just follow what the pattern had just told me for the previous row but backwards right?

So, there's this lace stitch called Bellflowers, the first row says : p2, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog 3 times, k2, yo, k3, yo, slip 1 k1 psso, yo, p2.

Okay, so would the work each stitch as it appears row (purling the yarn overs) then be:
p2, p1, k1, p1, k3, p1, k2, k3, p1, k1, p1, p2, or something like that?


But every time I try this the stitch comes out all funky and totally wrong. So, any suggestions? I'm so lost and confused. I'm sorry if this is all confusing, I'm just so frustrated.

[Jan in CA]

"Work each stitch as it appears on this side of the work k the k stitches and p the p stitches".

What this means is just what it says and the easiest way to do it is learn what the stitches look like. Seriously this will make your life so much easier.

Each stitch has a front and back. The back of a knit stitch is a purl and the back of a purl stitch is a knit. So if you end with two purls, when you turn you'll be doing two knits. Really look at your knitting and learn to read it. Here's a little sample I use to illustrate what the stitches look like. Both ends are knits so when you flip this over the center will be knits and both ends will be purls.

Does this help?

[Jessbreath]

omg, thank you so much! This helps so so much! It's great to finally know what the heck I've been doing wrong this whole time, lol! You are awesome.

[tarrentella]

knit as it appears always refers to the stitch you are about to knit and how it looks as it faces you, not what you did to it the row before. so like jan said, if it looks like a 'v' you knit it and if it is a '-' you purl it.

[Jessbreath]

Wow, I've been knitting for three years. How did I go so long without knowing this? Lol, thanks again!

[Jan in CA]

You're welcome!