my blankets keep going crooked

[littlegem crochet]

Please can anyone help?

I have been working on large granny squares but everytime they keep going crooked. I have followed instructions step by step and I'm not doing any incorrect stitches does anyone have any ideas what could be going wrong? could it be my tension?

whenever I crochet a plain blanket it is fine I only have this problem with granny sqaures.

[Becky Morgan]

They do get a little "spiraled" when you work big ones, more than maybe five or six rounds. If you want to join, then ch 3 and turn, rather than working in the same direction, that will even them out. Otherwise, they straighten out a bit when they're in a blanket and more when they're washed.

[jleinhauser]

How are you working your corners?

 

Jean Leinhauser

[littlegem crochet]

I have tried 2 ways of crocheting the corners (with knots and without and so you cant see the yarn colour change and when you can) and I follow the instructions stitch by stitch and I'm doing nothing wrong there its baffling me why they keep going like this. they do square out the bigger. I cant even put it down to changing yarn as it happens when I do a block colour.

I'm getting really frustrated by it now.

[littlegem crochet]

I will give your go a try now becky I never thought of doing that. thanks x

[magiccrochetfan]

Hi and welcome to the Ville:hook

 

here is another thread about grannies skewing or spiraling http://www.crochetville.org/forum/showthread.php?t=111556&highlight

if yours looks like the photo in the first post, that is the kind of crookedness that can be corrected by turning. there are some other ideas about where to join the rounds also.

[darski]

Hi and welcome to the Ville:hook

 

that is the kind of crookedness that can be corrected by turning.

 

This was going to be my suggestion as well. it seems to be the quickest fix that I have seen.

[RoseRed]

Maybe you need to find a different pattern. It's amazing how a differently written pattern can make more sense.

 

I always turn each round or they lean to one side.

[katyallen815]

just to add another idea, sometimes mine do it, and I have been making them for years, so I just don't chain between the clusters, seems to eliminate it, by pulling it a bit more together, you can try this a row or two, but the idea about turning, I never woulda thought to try that, let me know if that works too.......

[littlegem crochet]

hi everyone thanks a lot for your help, i tried the turning and hey presto it worked!!! woohoo!! I flip it over and start on another corner than what i finished and it seems to pull it all into shape.

I cant beleive something this simple has taken me years to get right haha.

Thanks a lot, I'm a very happy bunny now

[joules]

just to add another idea, sometimes mine do it, and I have been making them for years, so I just don't chain between the clusters, seems to eliminate it, by pulling it a bit more together, you can try this a row or two, but the idea about turning, I never woulda thought to try that, let me know if that works too.......

 

do you still add chains to the corners? ive heard of missing chains but couldnt figure out why people did it.

[Lynn]

I have found that I can eliminate the skewing of large granny squares by always starting a row in a corner and ending in the SAME corner. This seems to eliminate a lot of the skewing

[magiccrochetfan]

do you still add chains to the corners? ive heard of missing chains but couldnt figure out why people did it.

 

as far as I know, you need chains in the corners to give enough room for the 2 stitch blocks that will be in the corner. if your chain sts are loose, it possibly could work with only 1 in the corner.

 

I think i usually do not have a chain between each block of dc, and have 2 ch in the corners, but sometimes i have to vary this. it depends on the yarn and my particular tension at the time. usually having a chain between the stitch blocks makes my squares too floppy. Everybody's crocheting is a bit different, and then we are using different yarns/hook sizes, so there can be a lot of variation. sometimes i use a different approach on different rows if I am making a large square.

[joules]

as far as I know, you need chains in the corners to give enough room for the 2 stitch blocks that will be in the corner. if your chain sts are loose, it possibly could work with only 1 in the corner.

 

I think i usually do not have a chain between each block of dc, and have 2 ch in the corners, but sometimes i have to vary this. it depends on the yarn and my particular tension at the time. usually having a chain between the stitch blocks makes my squares too floppy. Everybody's crocheting is a bit different, and then we are using different yarns/hook sizes, so there can be a lot of variation. sometimes i use a different approach on different rows if I am making a large square.

 

cool, thanks. will do some practice squares with my fav yarn and soo how i get on