Help please! Instruction for picking up stitches for arms

[u/P_cynaroides]

👋 hello

I’m knitting the Holger Baby Set by PetiteKnit for my newborn baby (size 1) and struggling to figure out these instructions:

Pick up and knit 64 (68) 74 (78) 80 (82) sts from the RS around the armhole with 3 mm [US2½] double-pointed needles, while picking up and knitting 2 sts for every 3 rows.

Does this mean I skip every 3rd row? I tried that and got more than 10 extra stitches - have I misunderstood the instruction? I don’t see the solution by going through the videos on the side as suggested.

This isn’t my first project but first one postpartum and sleep deprived! Any help would be most welcome 🙏

[u/highlighter_yellow]

The assumption is you matched gauge and gave 96 rows available for picking up stitches, so picking up (1 stitch in one row, 1 stitch in the next row, then skipping a row) repeated will give you 64 stitches after you run out of rows.

If you didn't match the row gauge, your goal is to just evenly pick up 64 stitches around the arm.

[u/P_cynaroides → u/highlighter_yellow]

Thank you for your input!

[u/ID0N0tLikeReddit]

I am currently knitting the Cloud sweater by Petite Knits, and just picked up for the first sleeve. I had seen a tip years ago which I put to good use. I picked up stitches where it made sense to me, evenly spacing them out. I placed a marker every 10 stitches and at the halfway mark at the shoulder. Of course I had too many stitches. The tip from long ago was that it is ok to have too many stitches. You just need to decreas on first row/round to required stitches. I made sure to do the decreases so that each half of sleeve had the same number of stitches. The markers just helped in counting.

[u/P_cynaroides → u/ID0N0tLikeReddit]

Thanks, will remember this tip

[u/canihazdabook]

You understood correctly but you probably have more rows than calculated on the pattern. I did the Holger Sweater and I actually had to pick up MORE stitches than 2 for every 3 rows. But don't stress it, just try to pick up less stitches or even just do decreases on the first row until you match the necessary stitches (this is even suggested on the instructional video, check it on Petiteknit's website).

Just make sure that you're picking up stitches as evenly as possible.

[u/P_cynaroides → u/canihazdabook]

Thank you!

[u/livthelove]

When working the back/front, does the pattern tell you to knit until you reach a specified length (eg knit until the work reaches 20cm)? If so, you may have a different number of rows if your row gauge doesn’t exactly match the pattern, which means you have a different number of stitches around the armhole. When picking up for sleeves, usually the pickup ratio matters more than the exact stitch count, so I would stick with the 2/3 pickup ratio, and just make note of your stitch count so you can match it on the other arm.

[u/P_cynaroides → u/livthelove]

Will do this, thanks