confused beginner who cant read a pattern!

[JaneC]

Hi,

 

I have just started to learn to crotchet but unfortunately I am not able to read my pattern!  Please can you help as I think once I understand what is required I will be able to enjoy my new experience.

 

I have completed the ring, but now I am unable to understand the next steps of the instruction :

 

 

Rnd 2 (dc1, dc2 into next st) 6 times (18)

Rnd 3 (dc2, dc2 into next st) 6 times (24)

Rnd 4 (dc3, dc2 into next st ) 6 times (30) etc.

 

Please can someone explain this in English for me please!

 

Thank you so much in advance.

Jane.

[EnglishRose]

Hi Villager

Just wanted to say, I have been going crazy trying to work this out…

Yours is the one and only answer that helped me finally understand it…

Huge Thank you x

[EnglishRose]

On 2/9/2015 at 6:50 AM, magiccrochetfan said:

Hi, 

I have just joined, you question was my question I needed help with also….

just to say Ratdog answer was the only answer that helped me understand and finally get up and running.

thanks for help on this 👍 x

 

this is a kind of shorthand that some people are using in patterns now, which I personally think is confusing.  It does not mean what you asked if it meant.  What round 3 is trying to say is to dc once into each of the next 2 sts, then in the 3rd st you make 2 dc sts (this is the increase).  you repeat that sequence around, repeating it 6 times.  at the end you wil have 24 sts.

 

round 4 is make one dc in each of the next 3 sts, make 2 dc in the 4th st, and repeat that around, doing that sequence a total of 6 time.  at the end you wil have 30 sts.  

 

[Jackie6]

What does it mean after ch1( dc1 inc dc1) 13 times

[Granny Square]

Hi Jackie6, welcome to the 'ville!  To guide you to a way to use this site that might be less confusing to keep track of your posts, it is a good idea to start your very own thread if you have a new question - you are in the right general area, this is the 'crochet help' section, but you have attached yourself to somebody else's question from 7 years ago!  You are not the only one who has done that in this thread, but your question is now sort of lost on page 2 of the comments.

But now that I am here, I am not sure what you meant by 'after'.  "ch1( dc1 inc dc1) 13 times" means to chain 1, then do the stuff in the parentheses 13 times.  When a pattern says DC1, it means put 1 DC in the next stitch.  If it says DC 5 (for example) it means put 1 DC into each of the next 5 DC.

So after chaining 1, you make 1 dc into the next dc, make 2 dc in the following dc (2 into 1 is typically what 'inc' (increase) means), and 1 dc into the next dc (in other words, you use 3 stitches to make each repeat of the stuff in parentheses).  You do the ( ) instructions 12 more times, for a total of 13.

Each repeat uses 3 stitches and creates 4, so you will end up with 13 more stitches over that span, than when you started.