knitting the body in one piece

To knit the body in one piece you eliminate one stitch on the seam edge of the fronts, and eliminate one stitch on both edges of the back. These eliminated stitches would form the seam if you were to knit the two fronts and the back as three separate pieces.

For size 40 the pattern calls for 44 stitches cast on for each of the two front pieces, and 94 stitches for the back. To knit the body in one piece I cast on 43 (44-1) + 92 (94-2) + 43 (44-1) for a total of 178 stitches.


After doing the ribbing I placed markers after the 43rd stitch and the 135th (43 + 92) stitch, where there would have been a seam.

I got confused at first about the ribbing where there would have been a seam until I realized that on the right side your ribbing begins and ends with 2 purl stitches. Then it made sense.

Then you follow the pattern as written keeping in mind that you've eliminated those 4 stitches. Once you get started on the main cable pattern you won't be counting stitches but using markers and your eyes to know what to do. I've been marking off each row on a piece of paper so I know when to cross the cables (row 3).

So when you've knit the body to the length you want, you bind off for the armholes. Here you have to remember that you have eliminated 2 stitches at each underarm, so you would bind off 2 fewer stitches in the initial bind off row at each underarm.

In the case of size 40 the original pattern says to bind off 6 stitches at the beginning of the armhole shaping for each piece. Since I've eliminated 2 stitches each armhole, I will bind off 10 (6-1 + 6-1) stitches at each armhole. Then attach a new ball of yarn each for one front and the back and continue following the pattern as written, finishing the front pieces and the back separately.

I am just about to begin the armhole shaping myself and since this is the first time I've done it this way I'm in new territory. So if my little write up here doesn't make sense or I've gotten something wrong please let me know.

HTH