Since patterns are published to take up the smallest space possible, many great techniques are left out. Most often, publishers print the minimum amount of information necessary for you to knit the garment. This means that unless someone you know knows something you don't about knitting, you will make the garment using only those minimal guidelines.

The first way to vastly improve the structure and quality of a garment you are making is to work the shoulder shaping with short rows, and then three-needle bind off the shoulder seams. This efficient, elegant technique is a great shoulder treatment for garments. No more stairsteps in the shoulder seams, no more alligator-teeth join at the seam (the stitches sit next to each other like a zipper when you sew the shoulder seam). Some bulk can be eliminated from the interior of the garment as well.

How does one employ this group of techniques? First, I have to figure out whether or not the pattern I have chosen is structured in a way that supports the technique. Raglan sleeves have to be sewn up with mattress stitch, there's no way around it. On boxy garments without shoulder shaping (square shoulders) one can skip the short-rowing, place the front and back shoulder stitches on holders instead of binding off, and jump straight to the three-needle bindoff.

For a great description of working short rows in your piece, go to the article in the summer '03 issue of Knitty.

Step 2: Rewriting the Shoulder Shaping

For this exercise, I am using knitty's own pattern, Anticipation, from the winter '03 issue. As we read through the pattern for the back, we find the instruction, "Change back to MC and work even until 22[24,26] inches from CO edge." Once we've knit to this point, it is time to start the shoulder shaping. So we look at the next 4 rows that we're going to work, for those are the 4 rows we are going to rewrite using short rows.

We'll presume that my next row will be a knit row, though the pattern does not specify.

The pattern's next line reads, "BO 6[7,8] sts at beg of next 4 rows."

I'm making the second size, for a nice roomy oversized fit. I have 44 stitches on the needle. I am going to work the next 4 rows without binding anything off. What I do instead of binding off looks like this when written out row by row:

Instead of binding off 7 sts at each end of the row four times, I just leave those sts unworked at the end of the row.

The 'slip st pwise' thing is the wrap that one does to help hide the gap in the short rows. The next thing you'll do will gather up the wrap with the stitch it is wrapping to conceal the gap.

At this point in the pattern, the knitter would have (if following the pattern directions) bound off 14 sts in steps on each garment edge, and have 16 sts remaining at the back neckline. So the next step in the pattern would be to "BO rem 14[16,16] sts”. In our case, we have one more row to work, to knit up the wrap stitches and place those live 14 stitches from each shoulder on holders for the three-needle bindoff.

The way our knitting looks now, there are 15 stitches on the right needle, 29 on the left needle, and the last stitch we wrapped is on the right needle.

Next: and this is just how I do it, I'm sure there are a million other ways to work this step...I return the wrapped stitch to the left needle. Then I bind off the next 16 sts knitwise, BUT when I work the first stitch I catch the wrap with the stitch (see the pictures in the article mentioned above).

Then I knit across the remaining 14 sts, knitting up the wraps as I go. I place these sts on a holder for the bindoff.

I return to the 14 sts remaining on the right needle, join a new strand of yarn, and purl them, catching up the wrap when I reach that stitch. Then I place these 14 sts on a holder for the bindoff.

You may have noticed that working short rows adds a row to the fabric. I think that on dk-weight and finer knitting garments, one need not worry about that. However, on the anticipation sweater, a garment with a row gauge of 2.75 rows = 1”, I should compensate by starting the shoulder shaping at 23.5 inches from the cast-on edge. That extra row is going to add about a third of an inch to the fabric.

One works the front shoulder shaping in the same fashion. On the right front, once I have 14 sts remaining, I work the short rows starting with a right side (k) row in order to place the "short" stitches on the same edge of the fabric as the armholes. On the left front, I work the short rows starting with a wrong side (purl) row in order to shape the shoulder correctly.

The right front would read -- instead of "ALL SIZES: BO 7 sts at beg of next row. Work 1 row even. BO rem 7 sts."-- k to last 7 sts, wrap & turn. Purl 7. K across 14 sts, catching up wrap with st..Place these 14 sts on holder for 3-needle bindoff.

You may have noticed that I placed the wrapped stitches in different locations on the fronts and the back -- on the back, the wraps are on sts 8 and 15, on the front, only on the 7^th st from the edge. I like to place the wrapped stitches on the front and back of the garment so that I'm not binding off wrapped stitches together. Instead, they will land adjacent to each other, instead of being knitted together on the bindoff. I don't know if this does anything for the structure of the seam, its just a little thing I do.

Are we there yet? The Three-Needle Bindoff

Whew. Now we've got the right front finished, along with the back. Its time to make the best shoulder seam ever. Here goes.

Preparation: Place the right shoulder stitches from the back onto a knitting needle (same size needle as the one you knit the garment with). Make sure the working tip of the needle is at the armhole edge of the fabric. Circular needles are great for this, since either end can become the working end of the needle in a pinch.

Place the live shoulder stitches from the right front onto a knitting needle (same size needle as the one you knit the garment with). Make sure the working tim of the needle is at the armhole edge of the fabric.

Place the two pieces together, with the right sides of the fabric (i.e. the OUTSIDE of the garment) facing each other. This is important -- for the side of the garment that faces you will have the bound-off shoulder seam showing. Unless you want a welt on the shoulder of your garment for decorative purposes, have the INSIDE of the fabric FACING YOU as you prepare to work the bindoff.

With a THIRD knitting needle (hence, three-needle bindoff) you will knit the shoulder stitches together, then bind them off. It's easier to do if you use a needle that is one size smaller than the ones your live stitches are on.

But we're going to knit them in a special way. Insert the right needle tip into the BACK of the stitch on the needle closest to you, then into the FRONT of the needle farthest away from you. Knit them together. Repeat this step for the next pair of sts that you are knitting together. Then using either left needle tip, lift the rightmost stitch on the right needle over the leftmost stitch on the right needle and off the needle -- just like normal binding off.

*Insert the right needle tip into the BACK of the stitch on the needle closest to you, then into the FRONT of the needle farthest away from you. Knit them together. Then using either left needle tip, lift the rightmost stitch on the right needle over the leftmost stitch on the right needle and off the needle.

Repeat from * till you have bound off all the stitches together. Wow, doesn't that look fabulous?

If you are nervous about attempting this on a garment, give it a shot on a few swatches. C'mon, that's what the leftover hank of yarn from your last project is for!