Short Rowed Neck with Grafted Neckband

When I knit sweaters for charity I like to be able to knit them quickly. They are either a striped raglan sleeve pullover or a drop shoulder pullover both with a crew neck. I always do a short rowed neck with the grafted neckband. You can also use the grafting method on cut & sew necklines. To do a short rowed neck, rather than bind off stitches we are going to place them in hold. We have knit up to the neckline & are going to be doing our shaping.

1. My pattern says 'bind off the center 18 stitches' so instead, we are going to set the carriage to hold & place those needles in holding position. Since we are working the neckline on the right hand side first we will put all left hand needles in hold too.

2. Next, my pattern says to 'bind off 1 stitch every row 9 times' on the right hand side. To do that we will pull needle 10 into hold position & knit to the left. Then we will pull needle 11 to hold & knit to the right(automatic wrap). Then pull needle number 12 into hold & knit to the left continuing until all 9 needles are in hold for 9 rows. Wrap the last stitch if it isn't automatically wrapped.

3. My pattern says 'knit 14 rows even' so I will put a small weight by the last stitch in hold & knit 14 rows moving up the weight when needed. Take that shoulder off on waste yarn.

4.  Now, we move over to the other side of the machine & knit it the same way, putting all needles back in work on the left side except for the 9 center needles. Then we bring one needle out to hold every row 9 times. Knit 14 rows even hanging your small weight. Take that shoulder off on waste yarn.

5. Now, we have our short rowed neck hanging on the machine by the center 36 stitches. We will take the edge of the neck that was created by the 14 rows we knit even & hang it on the machine, not stretching them or bunching them up but just a nice even row. We will do that with both sides of the knit on the same number of needles.

6. Pull all the needles to holding position, take the carriage off hold, close all the latches & knit 1 row across all the needles in hold carefully checking to make sure all the needles knitted. Your short rowed neckline is completed & you can take it off on waste yarn.

7. Join one shoulder of the front & the back. Bind off & remove from the machine. Rehang your neck stitches from the short rowed neck in the front & the back neckline stitches too, with the purl side towards you. Knit one row of the yarn that you are using for the neckband & transfer stitches for the rib you have chosen. Hang comb & weights & knit the appropriate number of rows for your neckband. Remove comb & weights & transfer stitches to the main bed.

8. Take the first row that you knit for the band & hang it on the needles making sure that you get the stitches spaced evenly, from the purl side. You will have 2 stitches on each needle. Pull needles to hold, & bind off over 2 gate pegs. Finish assembling your sweater.

I really thought I could explain this without pictures but if it isn't that clear let me know & I will take some photos of the process. If you want to copy & paste these directions into notepad or some other program, that is fine. Thx all!!