Raglan pullover sweater pattern help

[KnitterinGA]

Hello everyone. I'm a beginner knitter and have made a first attempt (actually have started over a couple of times) at making the raglan pullover sweater in the Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends book.

http://shop.bernat.com/default.aspx?Pag ... Code=02000

I'm having trouble with the cables not matching up and wondered if anyone could give me some tips. I ended up wanting to knit this with acrylic instead of the alpaca blends yarn. I'm not the most skilled knitter and may just not be used to using a pattern. What is the most common issue when the pattern is not matching up? How can I get this to line up? Also does acrylic yarn not show cables very well or does that matter.

It also seems like the stitches don't add up correctly. When I add up the combinations of each pattern across one row it adds up to 84 stitches plus 7 on each side based on the size sweater I'm knitting. So you knit 7 stitches then row 1 of pattern A and row 9 of pattern A then row 9 of pattern B then row 9 of pattern A then knit 7 stitches. SO that's 7 x 2 stitches plus the patterns combo that add up to 84 which is 98 stitches.

The catch is that you are supposed to have 110 stitches total on the row after knitting the ribbing for bottom. Meaning you have 110 stitches when you finish the ribbing and are ready to start the cabling pattern for the back of the sweater. Shouldn't this add up to 110 instead of 98? I end up knitting 7 then the pattern combo and end up with like 13 or 15 stitches left at the end to knit. Or I go back across the next row and end up with 4 stitches instead of the 7.

I apologize if this sounds complicated but it's not making sense to mean and I'm determined to find out what I'm doing wrong. Has anyone seen this pattern or had trouble also? Please help if can.

Thanks, Knitter in GA

[Shandeh]

Welcome to the Bernat Forum!

You will get your best help with this pattern by contaacting Bernat Customer Support - inquire@bernat.com

They have access to the designer, and can give you detailed answers.

By the way, Bernat Alpaca is a bulky yarn, so if you substitute another yarn, make sure it works to the same gauge.

Good luck with your sweater!

[KnitterinGA]

Thanks Shandeh. I have looked at quite a few videos and retried a part of this pattern a couple of times and have decided that one problem that I was having was watching what side I was on. I think I made incorrect stitches due to the fact that I wasn't careful with doing the right stitch for the side I was on and losing track and reversing the stitches. I'm still a beginner and learning, so hopefully when I come back to this sweater I will do much better.

I'm trying a plain stockinette stitch sweater now which is going much better. However it is a raglan sweater but starts from the bottom going up and has pieces to stitch together. I now see I'm not too fond of this idea and would rather try a top down with no seams.

[Shandeh]

I'm glad you figured out what happened. You are smart to make a basic stockinette sweater for now. You will learn a lot while working on it. Now, you will know how to follow both top-down AND bottom-up patterns.