Please Help! Crisscrossing Chained Lines Over a Panel

[redrosesdz]

I'm working on a mile-a-minute afghan, published in a book.  I don't know if the pattern is available online, because it's unnamed in the book.  I’m stuck on part of the first panel.  I don’t want to breach publishing laws, so I’m going to try to briefly describe what I’ve done and then where I’m stuck.

There are 6 colors.  The panel is 8 dc wide with 2 rows of each color, making a rainbow effect.  The next step was to add a sc edge around the panel, working in the front loop of the right side.  The picture shows lines crossing over the panel, making an X pattern over each color (2 rows).  The panel is then finished with a decorative dc edge.  I’m stuck on the crisscrossing lines over the colored rows. 

 

The sc edge ends in the top, right corner with a slip stitch.  The next instructions are for the crisscrossing.  They are:

 

Turn; working in Back Loops Only, (slip st in next sc, ch 11, skip next 3 sc) across to center sc of next corner 3-sc group, slip st in center sc and in next 9 sc, * ch 5, drop loop from hook, working in front of Center (on right side), insert hook in center ch of corresponding ch-11 on opposite side, hook dropped loop and draw through, ch 5, skip next 3 sc, slip st in next sc; repeat from * across to last 10 sc, slip st in last 10 sc; join with slip st to Back Loop Only of first slip st.

 

Here is what I’m stuck on…

The sc edge was done on the right side, front loops.  If I turn and work in the back loops, how do I get the first 11 chain across the first color on the right side?

 

Once I connect the first chain to the opposite corner of the color block, do I slip st down to create the next 11 chain (continuing to the bottom) and then work up with the ch 5, hook in the middle of the 11, ch 5, slip st up the side (continuing to the top)?  (Working all of the bottom of the X, and then the top of the X)  OR do I slip st up to create the ch 5, hook, ch 5, and then work over the next color block? (Working each X over each color block, until the bottom)?

 

I’m very confused, because I don’t know which direction to go and it only mentions chaining 11 once.  Although, the picture shows every color block with the crisscrossing chain.  Also, I’m assuming that the right side gets the crisscrossing and the wrong side shows the color blocks.

 

I’m hoping that someone can help me figure this out.  I’m trying to get this done for my son’s birthday in early January.  I’ve done a few afghans, but this is the first time doing one that has a stained glass look by chaining over the color blocks.  Thank you in advance for any and all suggestions!

[redrosesdz]

I'm looking for either an interpretation of the instructions OR any suggestions on how to create crisscrossing lines over a panel for a lattice effect.  Please help!  It's driving me crazy and my son keeps asking me if I've figured it out, yet.  He really loves this pattern and he's never loved anything I've made before.

 

I wrote to the book's publisher for clarification.  This is what they sent back....

 

You will work ch 11 loops across the first side of the Strip on Rnd 2. Each ch 11 from the first side of Rnd 2 will fold in front of the rows across the right side of the Strip and be joined to the loop directly across from it on the second side of the Strip (this loop is the ch 5, drop the loop from hook and pull through with a slip st, ch 5) so the ch 11's and both of the ch 5's are connected to make an X on the right side of the Strip.
You are working Rnd 2 with the wrong side facing you and working into the back loops of the sc as they face you, so when you look at the sts on the right side of the Strip the sts will be toward the right side. When you work the ch 5 on the second side of the Strip, you will turn the Strip so the right side is facing you and the ch 11 and the ch 5 will be folded to meet in front of the rows, where you join the ch 5 to the center ch of the ch 11 by dropping the loop from the hook, insert the hook in the 6th ch of the ch 11, hook the dropped loop and draw it through that ch. You will then ch 5 and turn the Strip so the wrong side is facing you again and continue across the second side by skipping the next 3 sc, slip st in the next sc, ch 5, turn the Strip so you can fold the next ch 11 from the first side in front of the rows toward the second side and join the ch 5 to the 6th ch of that ch 11; as you stated, the joining of the ch 11 and the ch 5 with a slip st in the 6th ch of the ch 11, then working another ch 5, will form an X across the front of the rows.
As we hope this clarifies, you are only working slip sts on Rnd 2, which are into the back loops of the indicated sc from Rnd 1 and into the 6th ch of each ch 11. When you work Rnd 3, you will work with the right side of the Strip facing you and will work into the free loops of the sts you worked slip sts into on Rnd 2 and work into the 3 sc you skipped when you worked the loops.

 

Can anyone explain this in plain English?  I feel like an idiot for not understanding.  I'm feeling a bit desperate.

[magiccrochetfan]

I hate wordy instructions like this. I can't get a mental image of the stitches. What is the book title?

 

You can do surface crochet to make any design you want, slip stitch into the front of the fabric. Or you could even embroider the design.

[redrosesdz]

The book is "Contest Favorites Mile-A-Minute Afghans" 30 Best Designs from the Crochet with Heart Afghan Contest.  It was published by Leisure Arts in 1999.  I'm trying to do afghan #5, on page 11.

 

I actually thought about doing surface crochet to get the lattice work done.  I've never tried that before, but making slip stitches across to add a color design makes sense to me. 

 

I'm trying to follow the original, before trying something different.  The final picture for a single panel shows a rainbow of 6 colors, each color block is 8 dc, 2 rows.  There are 2 edgings around the blocks.  First a sc edge, and then a dc edge.  There is also a chain and a chain, connected to the first loose chain, to make an X over each color block.  It makes a lattice over the panel, giving it a stained glass effect.  The instructions say to do the lattice after the sc edge and before the dc edge.

 

What I can't figure out is if the lattice is on both sides of the panel or only the front.  I understand how to make the X, including joining them together, but I am not sure what the instructions are telling me to do to go from a corner of a color block to another corner.  Also, it keeps referring to working the slip stitches to the back loops on the back of the panel, but seeing the chain on the front of the panel.  How do you work on the back of something and have it show up on the front?

 

Thank you so much for replying!  I tried working this for hours and hours before posting yesterday.  I was beginning to think that there wouldn't be any help for me.

[magiccrochetfan]

Well, I don't know that I am being much help really.  But at least I can commiserate over the confusing directions lol

 

I think I found the pattern on ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/afghan-strip-5

BUT that photo is of someone's project, not a photo from the book.  it looks like the cris-crossing stitches on the front don't show at all on the back, so i wonder if she didn't follow the pattern but just did her own version to get the look she wanted.  

 

I think of surface crochet as being done from the front, but this tutorial http://www.crochetspot.com/how-to-crochet-surface-crochet-or-surface-slip-stitch/ shows some steps being done from the back.  I don't know if that jibes at all with your pattern though...?  

[redrosesdz]

That picture is of the afghan that I'm making, just different colors.  I think the tutorial really helps a lot!  It's got to be what they are talking about.  I'm going to print it out and see if I can mesh the steps with the instructions.  I'll write back and let you know.  It make take me a few tries!  I'm working on a sample panel that I made, so I can rip and redo to practice.

 

Thank you so much!!!!

[magiccrochetfan]

You're welcome, I hope it helps!  Good luck and do let us know what you get worked out

[redrosesdz]

Right after I started trying to surface stitch the lattice work, I got a call from Leisure Arts.  My visual on doing the lattice work was wrong, which is why it didn't make sense to me.  I was looking at each line in an X and trying to figure out how to get from corner to corner, like when you write an X. 

 

The instructions look at each half of the X.  You do all of the > in chain-loops down the side of the panel.  Then go back up the panel with < in chain-loops, connecting the point inbetween.  So, it is >< instead of an X. 

 

You could literally see the lightbulb over my head when I realized that the >< was cut in half, down the middle, instead of / & \ !  Now it is so simple.  LOL  Thank you for helping and I hope that this helps someone else doing lattice work that is loose over a panel.

[magiccrochetfan]

how nice that LA followed up w/ a call, that's great customer service.

[redrosesdz]

I agree that it was wonderful customer service!  She said when she called that she could hear how frustrated I was trying to figure it out.  She was the one that wrote the wordy instructions and I could tell that she was getting tired of trying to explain on paper.  She was so nice and patient with me.   Sometimes you just have to have a conversation, instead of messages. 

[Granny Square]

Red Heart has posted some videos to show how to do parts of their patterns (Darski started a thread recently about a peppermint afghan that was done in interlocking crochet, for example).  The written instructions were ?huh? but the video of the stitch technique, although unusual, showed it was easy -- once you saw it.  It sounds like this pattern could have used a video tutorial for that little detail.