I have this pattern for Sackboy, a video character.
I have gotten veddy veddy confused as I got to the first increase row for his. The pattern has you cast 12 stitches, stockinette two rows. Cool. Then, it says:
(Inc 1, inc 1, K1) to end.
Now, I should have 20 stitches at the end. I am getting way more than 20 stitches. What does that instruction mean? What should I be doing?
Getting annoyed because the pattern doesn’t specify what type of increase you should be doing and not all increases are equal or end up looking the same on the final product.
Inc 1, Inc 1, K1 is taking 3 stitches and turning them into 5 stitches. You increase in the first two and then you knit one stitch normally. For this, I’d probbly knit and purl into the first two stitches (knit, don’t slide the stitch of the needle, bring the yarn forward, purl into the same stich, then slide the stitch off the needle) and then knit the last stitch. Do that 4 times and you’ve got 20 stitches.
Sounds right to me. If you’re getting “a lot more” than 20 stitches, my guess is that you’re instead doing the kind of increase that grabs a bar between stitches and uses that as the basis of the new stitch, which shouldn’t be done in this case. Check out this page of knitting increases to see the difference in styles - you probably want the “KFB” style of increase, or what amarinth suggested, the “Moss Increase”.
It was awful late as I looked at that pattern and I am not sure what I was doing. It makes complete sense now. For some reason last night it turned into gibberish in my head. I am pretty new to knitting, coming from a crochet background and reading non-visual patterns always stymies me at first. Y’all are great!
And thanks, additionally for the advice with the type of increase. I was not sure what would look best.