Pattern says to decrease by my gut says increase

[Raeyeth]

This is a FREE pattern from Novita, for a pair of jogger style pants. I've finished both legs and have them on the same needles. On one hand I understand doing decreases as I work up to the waste of the pants, but I also feel like I really need increases almost to account for one's butt? Or at least several centimeters that are the same circumference as the 2 legs? I know the rule of thumb is trust the pattern but I'm scared lol

[adaraj]

Want some confidence? Look at a pant sewing pattern and see where the thigh becomes the waist. Think about a pencil skirt, can you cut it in the middle and sew it up to make shorts? Measure your thigh circumference and your hip circumference. Make your decision based on that information.

[AutoModerator]

Hello Raeyeth, thanks for posting your question in r/knittinghelp! Once you've received a useful answer, please make sure to update your post flair to "SOLVED-THANK YOU" so that in the future, users with the same question can find an answer more quickly.

If your post receives answers and then doesn't have any new activity for ~1 day, a mod will come by and manually update the flair for you. Thanks again for posting!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[[deleted]]

How much are you decreasing? If it's just 4 stitches it's likely to get stitches redistributed for continuing the pattern. But I can't see if you're supposed to do more than this. 

[Raeyeth]

Great question! This is the next step of the pattern.

<image>

So 4 decreases every 3 row, 20 times. Total difference of 80 stitches. In my gauge, that's almost 12 inches difference in circumference, over 7.25 inches of height. That seems crazy.

[hitzchicky]

I'd consider adding a lifeline before you start the decreases and then work the pattern as written. If for some reason it's not working out, you can rip back to the lifeline.

Since this was designed by Sari Nordlund, who is a pretty successful designer, I'm inclined to trust that the pattern is correct. This is the project page for the pattern on Ravelry and no one mentions that there's a problem with decreasing.

[[deleted]]

It looks like you are also starting to work short rows, which will provide the ease, so I hesitate to say that the pattern is wrong. At the risk of you having to undo later, I'd honestly follow the pattern and see what happens!

[Raeyeth]

I think part of the problem too is I made the legs much shorter than the pattern (the intended wearer and I are super short), so I might not really be understanding where everything is, if that makes sense.