- Yesterday someone mentioned the casting on. I have had good luck with crocheting the chain, then picking up the “bumps”. I always chain a few extra stitches just in case my count is off and in the end, those extra stitches are just left empty. When I start knitting through the bumps, I will put a stitch marker every 20 or 25 stitches (whatever number I decide) so I can count easily without having to start over with #1 each time.
- When removing those live stitches from the chained stitch, I use a circular needle and “thread the needle” through all the picked up stitches before removing the waste yarn stitches. It seems to go faster and I’m more confident doing it that way.
- When you start removing the chained stitches, one end is going to unzip and one end isn’t. Find the unzipping end and they’ll zip right out.
You’re going to do the sleeve repeats – those are easy and I find them fun. I didn’t mind the bind off, the rib for shoulder and waist but that Lower Body – Set Up Rounds . . that’s where I get a bit nervous.
The most important advice I think I can share would be:
- Keep the stitch markers, especially in the back, for your pattern repeats!
- Use different stitch markers for marking the repeats from those you’re using where the pattern tells you to place markers. You really need to know which markers are the ones the pattern has said to use and don’t mix those up with the ones you’re place in the project.
- Page 3, Lower Body, Set Up Rounds, Step 2 – where she says “Make sure you have 17 (23, 23, 29, 29, 35) sts before next marker on left hand needle.” — That is so important! I’ve found that if I had to bind off an extra stitch, or one less stitch, getting those numbers she indicates remaining is what really matters.
If you’ve done the sleeves, are have that repeat memorized, once you get past the increases, bind offs, etc. (and really, that’s just a small part of the pattern), the rest is more of the same repeats and it’s so easy and relaxing to do.