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HELP! What to do with loose chains in first row?


Lou

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Hello,

I'm a beginning crocheter and am almost finished with my first baby blanket. Problem is, the very first row that I chained. I made it too loose to begin with and it now seems to have become even more loose. There are large loops that I don't think I can do anything with.

 

I want to do a nice edging, looked up Picot and was going to do that. The instructions say to chain a round first. But I don't know what to do with that bottom row of loose chains. They are just dangling there and look awful. I know I should have corrected it in the beginning, but honestly, they've gotten bigger as I've gone along.

 

I'm ready to do the edging now, is there anything I can do to work in the loose chains?

 

Thanks so much!

Lou

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I was wondering if you could do this........and I might not be able to make a good explanation of what I'm thinking, but anyways, here goes..........

 

At the ending side of that foundation chain......not the beginning.....

since the stitches are so loose, is there anyway that you could go into each individual chain and tighten it, working backwards across the row towards the beginning chain?

Seems like you should be able to go into each stitch and tighten it.

 

I kind of do something similar to that in cross stitching...if my stitches are too loose on the decorative side, I pull them from the back to tighten them up. But I've never done it in crochet so I don't know if it would work.

I would use a small hook to try it.

 

Of course you're going to have to work the knots out of it first, that got in it while you were trying to come up with another solution.

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Is there anyway you could whip stitch over the loose stitches with a matching thread to bring them back up and tighter to the body? I understand your frustration. It seems a shame to waste the whole project because of the first row. If it's accomodating to the pattern, I do the chain-free foundation chain to avoid this. You can see a demo here:

 

 

She does it for the sole, using a DC, but it can be done with sc, hdc, or tc. I have found it eliminates my having to start and re-start (not to mention it's way easier for me to see and count the stitches of a sc or dc, instead of a chain) the chain row and they are all uniform in size.

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Hi Lou,

 

I hope you were able to finish your blanket. Did you sew binding around the edges?

 

I was going to suggest making your first round of sc edging into the front-loop of the stitches on the blanket ends. Then doing another round of sc as normal. These two rows would have covered up those loose loops. If not, you could have made a third round of sc before beginning your pretty edging pattern. Yes, the loose loops would still be visible on the wrong side of the blanket, but with the yarn edging behind the loops, they would not be noticable.

 

How did it happen? I think that you may have crocheted into the back-loop of your chain when you made your first row. This might be why the loose loops were so loose. For your next project crochet under both of the two top loops in each chain. You could also use a smaller hook if you chain loosely. I need to use a larger hook.

 

:hug

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:hug

Don't try to worry too much. If you're sending it to someone who doesn't crochet, they probably won't even realize it's a mistake. Most people who don't crochet don't know what's intentionally done and what's not intentionally done. Unless it's so big you can't miss it, but then again, mostly crocheters would notice it. And we're harder on our own work then someone else. when you get some done, ask someone and see what they think. They probably won't notice or care.

:manyheart

Of course that advice is easy to give, I have a hard time giving things that aren't well done. But I've learned that they don't notice things like that. I'm thinking "there's a big mistake right there." and they just pass over it. Okay it may not be "big" but it is to me.

Debbi

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Happy Stitcher - oh no, please don't feel bad, not your fault. I appreciate your suggestions! I cut out the knots, and was able to get it all out. I have enough green yarn, hopefully! I'll keep trying everyone's suggestions. If I had more pink yarn, I could try doing the suggestion to make loops all way around....it's a striped pattern, 7 rows pink, 2 rows green....

 

I'll keep trying different things. I was really hoping to get this done in the next few days and send it off.....

 

Good luck! I hope you get it fixed to your satisfaction...I know how it is to be disappointed in something you planned to gift. Catlyn's idea sounds promising....maybe that would work!

 

:xfin

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Happy Stitcher - oh no, please don't feel bad, not your fault. I appreciate your suggestions! I cut out the knots, and was able to get it all out. I have enough green yarn, hopefully! I'll keep trying everyone's suggestions. If I had more pink yarn, I could try doing the suggestion to make loops all way around....it's a striped pattern, 7 rows pink, 2 rows green....

 

I'll keep trying different things. I was really hoping to get this done in the next few days and send it off.....

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I tried to pull the twisted yarn out as it looks just awful, very sloppy...but it's now knotted and won't come out. It's a mess now.

 

Oh, gosh, I'm sorry! :eek

Try just taking it out one little bit at a a time, untwisting as necessary. Just go slooooow and try to undo a little at a time.

 

I'm really sorry for giving you a bad suggestion, though..... :(

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Thanks for your suggestions. I've tried a couple of things and now i have a worse mess! I first tried skipping over the first row and working into the next one...but the loops that were so big, make some of the yarn pop out making little bumps, not terrible, but they are inconsistent so look sloppy.

 

Then I tried to twist the yarn as I worked a single crochet into that row....well, that doesn't look great either. The problem is that not every single stitch has a long enough loop to twist...so it's inconsistent with the color. I'm using pink and green yarn, and trying to do the fix and trim with the green - I'm out of pink.

 

I tried to pull the twisted yarn out as it looks just awful, very sloppy...but it's now knotted and won't come out. It's a mess now.

 

Thanks for your suggestions. I don't know what a else to try. I think I have to keep going with the twisting because I can't get it to come out. But the row is crooked, and obviously looks like I made big mistakes.

 

I may not even send it because I'd be too embarassed. I'm mad at myself for not taking care of it when I first noticed. The rest looks great and I hate to throw it away because it's taken forever. But it looks really really bad.

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I was going to suggest what happy stitcher suggested.

 

Crochet into the first row, over the chains. This may put them back up against the row. So instead of crocheting in the loops, work in the first row, same as the other stitches.

 

 

Or...

I don't know if this would work, but maybe take a long piece of yarn and sew them back up and work over that?

 

Maybe do loops around the other 3 sides, on purpose crocheting them, to match? So maybe do a chain 3 all the way around for your loops on the other 3 sides, then do say 4 sc in each loop, including the first round...

Maybe just do loops in several rounds around the blanket to make it look like you did it on purpose...

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Can you stitch over the stitches, instead of skipping them? Try stitching over them into the first row maybe you can hide them like that....just experiment and see what you can come up with. If they're as large as you're describing, there may be nothing you can do to make them completely go away, but just try some different things and see if you can come up with something....

If they're large loops, can you actually twist the one you're about to do a stitch into, so that some of the length disappears into a twist before you insert your hook in it? Just a thought....

 

I hope you can figure something out!

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Thanks Heather. I started to do that, but this first row is so ridiculously loose that just single crocheting does nothing to help hide the loose stitches. There is still a big gap where those stitches are. Can I skip over the loose stitches and work back into the first row?

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I'd do a single crochet around the entire afghan before you do your picots (3 sc's in the corners). That should give it a more consistent tension and will (kind of) hide the looser stitches in your beginning. Chalk it up to experience. I always learn something on each project I make.

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