New knitter needs help please!

[MrsWhites]

Hi everyone,

I have recently started to knit, my sister is due to have a baby soon so I have been knitting little booties and hats for baby. I have moved onto knitting a cardigan but I’m stuck.

So far I have made the sleeves and the main part of the body but I am coming to the below bit in the pattern of joining the sleeves and the description is throwing me - will the below instruction make sense to me when I get to that part? (Still a couple of rows away)

Could anyone give me any advice or help me make sense of the ‘purl across the sleeve’ part? (I have both sleeves on a holding safety pin thing if that helps).

38th Row: S1, k4, p15, purl across 25sts from the first sleeve, purl 37sts from the back, purl 25sts from the second sleeve, purl 15sts from left front, k5

Thank you!

It will make sense. It just mean purl the stitches from the stitch holder so they're back in the main knitting if you know what I mean. Just make sure it's the right way round so the sleeve isn't joined inside out. Good luck. 😊

It’s puzzling isn’t it when you are new to knitting?
So, with the wrong sides facing you you are going to purl all the pieces together after the first 5 stitches. What I do is transfer the stitches on stitch holders onto a knitting needle in the order as written in the pattern - the front your knitting stays on your right hand knitting needle, the first sleeve + back + second sleeve + left front are on your other needle.
Then you can purl one piece after another together, if you see what I mean?
Then just follow what the pattern says, it’ll make more sense when you get there!
Good luck!

I presume you have knitted the fronts and back of the cardigan from the bottom hem upwards, and the two sleeves from the cuffs upwards? You have now reached the armpit height on all the pieces.

From now on, when you knit a row you are going to start at the opening on one side of the front, go across the front, around the outside of one sleeve to the back, across the back, around the outside of the other sleeve, and across the other bit of the front, to get back to where you started but on the other side of the main front opening. Then you go back across all those parts in reverse order, (probably purling right across, if you are doing stockinette/flat knitting).

So, on the joining row you knit across the front part, then you have to add one of your sleeves onto the needles and carry on knitting across that too, in the same direction as if they were the same piece if knitting (ignoring that underneath the two sections aren't joined to each other). IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO CHECK THAT THE OUTSIDE OF THE SLEEVE AND THE OUTSIDE OF THE FRONT PIECE ARE FACING THE SAME WAY ON THE NEEDLE OR ONE WILL END UP JOINED ON INSIDE OUT. After that, you add the back piece onto the second needle/other end of your circular needle and carry on knitting across, etc.

Thank you everyone, that makes more sense to me now.

I will refer back to your tips when I get to that point.

Just wanted to pop back on here and say thank you for your tips, the sleeves are on!