Slanted Pockets

I've never knitted pockets into anything before, but I'm making something now that I thought would benefit from slanted pockets in the front, so I thought it was high time to learn. I found my instrctions in The Big Book of Knitting by Katharina Buss, which on the whole I've found an excellent reference with lots of good pictures. In this case, however, a few points seem to be lacking and I had to make a swatch first to figure out what was being said. In the interest of good knitting education for all, I have photographed all the steps in the hopes of providing a more detailed tutorial on the subject:

For my example I'm modeling a stockinette cardigan with a ribbed edge.

1. Knit the edge and begin the body of the cardigan until you reach the height where you want the pocket opening to begin, ending on a wrong side row. On the next row, knit until you reach the point where you want the bottom edge of the pocket to be, typically about 1/3 of the way across the front. Put the stitches you just knit onto a holder.


2. Knit the remainder of the row, turn, purl until the holder. Now K1, ssk, knit to end. Repeat for every RS row until you have the desired length pocket opening. Put remaining stitches on a second holder (I'm using a spare dpn here). Break the yarn.


3. Turn the work over and, joining a new yarn, pick up stitches along the edge with the ribbed border, starting in the stitch column where the pocket slant was begun and continuing all the way across, or as far as the pocket is to extend.


4. Work these stitches in stockinette, with the knit side facing the back of the pocket front, until you reach the height of the first holder. End on a wrong side row for the left pocket (shown), on a right side row for the right pocket.


5. Transfer the stitches from the holder to the left-hand needle and continue across the row.


6. Keep knitting all these stitches until you reach the height of the second holder. End on a wrong side row for the left pocket, on a right side row for the right pocket.


7. Count how many stitches were on the original holder from step 1 and the number of decreases that were made in step 2. Add these numbers and knit that many stitches. (In the example, 6 stitches over + 4 decreased.) Now slip the first stitch from the holder onto the left needle and K2tog.



8. Repeat the slip from holder to left needle, K2tog, all the way across the row. If you chose not make the inside of the pocket as wide as the rest of the piece, there will be extra stitches on the holder. Simply transfer these to the left-hand needle and knit to the end.

9. Carry on knitting the rest of the piece as desired.


10. When all the knitting is finished, sew the two open edges of the pocket invisibly against the inside of the garment.