The Things that No One Tells You...Part Two

The Fair Isle 101 Pullover Series

So, on to the problem du jour (nice use of the french, no?) I knit the lace, I knit up to the armholes, I divide the front and back (new skill learned A+,) I shape the armholes (new skill learned A+,) I bind off for the neck line (new skill learned A+,) then I get to the neck shaping. this is where the new knitter gets her ass kicked. The directions tell you to bind off two stitches at the neck edge of each shoulder three times. Seems simple enough, right? I assume it means that you:

knit down to the last two stitches on the first shoulder, bind those off, then bind off the first two stitches on the second shoulder, knit to end and repeat twice more.

Study that sentence for a moment or two. See what’s wrong with it? That’s right! You can’t bind off at the end of a row without ending up with a single, dangling stitch on the other side of the bound off stitches. I, of course, didn’t realize this until I actually did it and was looking at that dangling stitch like, what the fuck?

After cursing the knitting and the pattern (but not too forcefully) and consulting my knitting reference book (a/k/a Ms. Stoller’s SNB) I come to the conclusion that you must alternate rows, binding off the first two stitches at the beginning of the second shoulder each time until the correct number of stitches have been bound off. I will spare you the details of this reasoning but it may have involved a graph. Anyway, all of you out there, am I right? And if so, why didn’t anyone tell me? (Cursed fucking useless knitting books.)

P.S. I have now finished the front of the pullover and am onto the back. We shall see what other surprises are in store for me. And, of course, whether I will run out of yarn.