On this page, I guide you through the steps involved in the “Neck Trim” section of Audrey’s Pullover. I cover: picking-up stitches (most importantly, how I pick up the “front center” stitch and mark it as “marked center”), how to identify the “marked center” when working the rib trim, how to work the CDD (center double decrease) and how I weave in ends around the front center if a hole appears.

I have both a video lesson as well as photo tutorials. For the full video lesson (where I demonstrate every step of the process), you can watch below. If you prefer viewing just the photo tutorials, just scroll below the video to the photo tutorial.

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Video Lesson:

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Photo Tutorial:

Picking-Up Stitches – Step 1:

You will be starting at the right-end of your Back Neck. So position the work so the Back is facing you. And you’ll need a 16″/40cm length circular needle in a size smaller than that used to get gauge (so in my case, that was a US 6):

You will be picking up the stitches you had cast-on for your Back Neck – these are the “v’s” you see at the top of the back neck. Then you will join the yarn and knit:

1. Insert needle into the first “v” along the back neck:

2. Join yarn by drapping it over the top of the needle…

3. …and then knit it.

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Picking-Up Stitches – Steps 2 & 3:

In step 2, you will continue in the same manner as step 1, but you’re picking-up the stitches you had cast-on for your sleeve (so your top-of-shoulder). I recommend placing a removable/locking stitch marker before you start step 2 just for ease of counting:

Once your sleeve stitches are picked-up, you’ll reach Step 3. In this step you are instructed to pick-up and knit a certain number of stitches going down the Left Front curve, and this number works out to picking-up approximately 3 stitches for every 4 rows. You can remove the marker you had placed before starting step 2 and place it now on the right needle before you start step 3 (again, for ease of counting).

For a more in-depth tutorial about how to pick-up and knit your stitches along the Left Front curve, refer to my video lesson at the top of this page.

Once you have picked-up your Left Front curve stitches, it will look like this:

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Picking-Up Stitches – Step 4:

In step 4, you’re instructed to pick-up and knit 1 stitch at the front center. Here is how I like to do this:

First mark your center stitch with a removable/locking stitch marker:

1. In the photo below, the white circle shows the “v” stitch that I want to mark as my center stitch. It’s the stitch under and to the right of the loose strand at your center.

2. Mark this center stitch by putting the locking marker through both legs of the “v” as pictured below.

3. Now we’re ready to knit our front center stitch. Insert the right needle tip into the stitch you have marked with your locking stitch marker (so into both legs, as pictured above). Once you’ve inserted your right needle into this stitch, you can remove the stitch marker.

4. Then knit this stitch by wrapping the yarn around the right needle and knitting it.

5. Once you’ve knit it, it will look like this on your right needle.

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Picking-Up Stitches – Step 5:

In step 5 you are instructed to place a locking stitch marker on the outside of the fabric right under the front center stitch you just knit. And then this will be referred to as your “marked center” moving forward. Here is a photo of how I do this and the placement of it:

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Picking-Up Stitches – Steps 6-8:

Before starting step 6, just like we’ve done before all of our other steps, I suggest placing a removable/locking stitch marker on your right needle just for ease in counting.

Then in step 6, you pick-up and knit along the Right Front curve just like you had done on the Left Front curve. And then, before starting step 7, again move your marker you had placed at the beginning of step 6 to your right needle so you can easily count your sleeve stitches to be picked up.

And then in Step 8, you just need to place marker for beginning of round. So I just took the marker I had been using to keep track of my counting and placed it on my right needle at this point.

And then when it says to “join for working in the round”, that just means that will be working in the round starting with the next round.

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Working Rib Trim – Identifying “marked center”

In Round 1, it says to [k2, p2] to marked center. This is what that looks like:

Here’s another example – in round 2, it says to [k2, p2] to 4 stitches before marked center. This is what that looks like:

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Working Rib Trim – Working the “CDD”

Below are the steps involved in working the “CDD” technique, which stands for “Center Double Decrease”.

Step 1:

With yarn held in back, insert the right needle into the next 2 stitches on the left needle knitwise, as if to k2tog:

Step 2:

Without working these stitches, simply slip them over to the right needle:

Step 3:

Then knit the next stitch:

Step 4:

Insert the left needle tip into the fronts of the 2 stitches you had previously slipped onto the right needle:

Step 5:

Then lift these 2 stitches up over the stitch you had just knit…

Step 6:

…And off of the right needle. 2 stitches have now been decreased.