need pattern help

[pixiewytch]

Hey everybody, I'm looking at a simple soaker pattern but I have some questions before I attempt it. One part of the pattern says "Place 12 stitches on a stitch holder. Now work back and forth on the remaining stitches. Dec. 1 at the beginning until 12 remain. Now weave these together with ones you placed on the holder."

Okay, I know how to decrease but I don't know anything about a stitch holder or how to "weave" stitches back in. Can someone explain this to me so I can try to visualize it or even offer a video somewhere?

My other question is that it says you need 16" circulars in size to achieve 5sts to an inch gauge. How the heck do I figure that one out?

[leoheart]

The pattern wants you to graft the two edges (the 2 sides with 12 sts each side) together. For this you'll want to do a kitchener stitch. You can find video instructions for this on knittinghelp.com. It looks/sounds more complicated than it is. (And you'll need a darning/blunt embroidery needle)

The 16" circulars refers to the length of the needle (which would fit the circumference of the soaker as you're knitting it). But there should be another size given for the needle (either mm - 3.75mm eg. - or size #). The diameter of the actual needle itself is what determines gauge. Be aware that you may start with the recommended needle size and find that it isn't giving you the gauge needed for the pattern, so you may have to use another size. If you're fairly new to knitting, you might find that you knit tighter (too many sts per inch) than the gauge, in which case you'd want to use a larger needle; or you may knit looser (not enough sts per inch), and have to use a smaller needle.

Re: the 16" circulars. You could also use much longer needles (like 40") and use the magic loop method. (Google magic loop and you'll be able to find several explanations of this.) It looks complicated at first, but after a few minutes practice it generally makes a lot of sense, and prevents you from having to buy many different lengths of circular needles, as you can use those long ones for both large and small projects.

I hope that made sense