left front shoulder pickup (Step 4)
You are continuing the final WS row from Step 3 after the cap pickup.
(see Ziggurat Steps & pick up cap stitches tutorials
Continue to work from RS, going from left to right.
Before picking up the stitches for the front shoulder you must make a large loop in your circular (like Magic Loop).
Tip: you can place the new shoulder stitches on a double pointed needle and leave the circular hanging for now.
goal: make the slipped stitches column (highlighted) for back shoulder continue seamlessly into the front shoulder
trick: locate the 2nd stitch before starting your pickup. Insert a marker at the pointy tip of the first slipped stitch (where the two legs of the stitch close).
Wiggle the marker to insert it properly in the cast-on chain (below two strands) and at the very tip of the upside down 'V' of the slipped stitch.
This 2nd stitch is the start of the slipped-stitch column for the front.
It needs to line up with the slipped (lightened) column of the back shoulder.
Think of the slipped stitches as V:s going in opposite directions from the shoulder 'seam'.
Pick up the 1st stitch (an edge stitch) – white arrow – for left front shoulder.
This stitch can be picked up in a spare loop or waste yarn at the very edge or slightly toward the WS (at the end of Step 4 it will roll to the WS and not be visible from RS).
Now, pick up the 2nd stitch exactly where the marker sits.
Continue to p&k front shoulder stitches in the cast-on chain, going through both bars (orange).
Go from left to right and place stitches on left needle.
Pink arrow: the 2nd stitch picked up to continue slipped stitch column (lightened) in the opposite direction.
As you knit the left front this stitch is slipped on RS rows.
A left shoulder with a decorative chain pickup and a few rows of left front knitted.
The slipped stitches are highlighted. You can see where they meet and change direction. The pink stitch is the 2nd stitch that was picked up at the start of Step 4.
The first stitch (the edge stitch) is not visible but is there – it can be spotted (barely) on the needle, outside the slipped stitch.
Because this shoulder pickup is from below the cast-on chain, the decorative chain interrupts slipped-stitch columns (the faux seam). In a regular pickup the slipped stitches of front and back meet point to point without that interruption.
Design: Over the Ha-Ha from the NEW Ziggurats book.
