Just out of curiosity

If it is supposed to be symmetrical, I'd interpret k3tbl as k3togtbl - knit three together through the back loop to balance the k3tog.

The pairs of k3tog/k3togtbl will be set apart by groups of k5, except at the edges where one edge is k3, the other is k2.

I'm assuming that the pattern is knitted flat and that the other rows do something else, probably increasing to balance the loss of four stitches per repeat on this row.

=Tamar

Knit 3, Knit 3 through back of loop, Knit 3 together, Knit 2. On the wrong side of your work you should have Purl 3 through back of loop. The result is rows of stitches which stand out from the background of the work The stitches on each side of the cable here

Knit three, pretty obvious

Hm. This *should* produce a left-leaning double decrease: jam the right needle through the backs of three consecutive stitches and knit them together.

Again pretty obvious. K3tog makes a right-leaning double-decrease.

Brioche stitch, or trinity stitch maybe?

Bing, bing, bing - if there was a prize - you'd have it. But here's what I did, because I followed the instruction to the letter. I knit 3 separate stitches through the back loops. There was nothing there that said K3 TOGETHER. I think it's an error on the part of the person who wrote the pattern. She must think the people knitting this pattern are mind readers. ;>P And you should see the instructions on how to do it!! (I finally got smart and read the extra little notes hidden away from the main pattern.) Here's what you're supposed to do:

Slip the first two stitches onto the other needle. Knit the 3rd st thru the back loop, then slip the other 2 stitches over the knitted stitch.

The other decrease of K3 tog is to be done this way:

K the first two together, slide that st back onto the left needle (if you knit that way), slip the 3rd st over that one, then slip the whole mess back onto the right needle and carry on. whew!!

The pattern is for a pair of socks, which I'm knitting on 4 dpns. Once I finally got the hang of it, it's looking pretty good. And you're right about the increases. They are in the 1st and 3rd rows and the above "stuff" was done on the 5th row. Thank heavens it's only a 6 row repeat.

I've seen a lot of patterns in my time, but haven't seen instructions like this. Obviously you guys are better at reading patterns than I am. ;>D

Thanks for the input.

Shelagh

Hah! Read my post to Tamar and see the convulted instructions for the decreases. Plus, I was thoroughly annoyed that it didn't SAY K3 TOGETHER tbl. But I guess we're all mind readers, and I failed (laugh).

Not really, it's a 6 row repeat of increases and that row I wrote about is the corresponding decrease to get a lacy effect along with a kind of a "V". It's for socks, and now that I have the hang of it, it looks quite nice.

Shelagh

I'm with you, Tamar. Very poorly written instructions, though.

Higs, Katherine

I would have thought that if this was meant to be a decrease the instruction should read: K3togtbl. I think it's ambiguous and could be read either as "knit each of the next 3 stitches through the back of the loop" or "knit 3 stitches together through back of the loop". What happens on the next row? What is the result meant to look like?

VP

Now, I would interpret K3tbl as "knit three stitches, one after the other, thru the back loop.'" If they wanted the stitches knit together, they should have said so.

Good example of a poorly written pattern, it would have been just as easy to say K3togtbl. DA

"DA"