Keeping the turning chain straight

[vdecker]

Good morning,

 

I am new to crocheting and I am having a problem with keeping the turning chain straight.

 

My project is a baby car seat blanket.  It is a double crochet stitch edging, with a cross double crochet stitch pattern from one of the popular pattern books.

 

In the picture of the finished piece, it is square and the very edge stitch/turning chain is as straight as the other stitches.

 

My row end stitch, dbl ch st, is straight like it's supposed to be, but my turning chain is bent, which gives the piece a scalloped looking edge.

 

How do I keep that turning chain straight?

 

I appreciate your talent and help.

 

Vicki

[silverbelle29]

Hello and 

[redrosesdz]

HI Vicki and welcome to Crochetville!

 

It may be the height of your dc.  Is it the same height as your turning chain?  If you crochet tight, it could be shorter, which would cause the ch-3 to bow outwards.  There are 2 ways to fix this that I know of.  Maybe others may know of more ways.

 

1 - You can shorten the ch-3 turning chain to a ch-2.

 

OR

 

2 - You can change the height of your dc.  The first loop you pull up is called the "golden loop" and it is the reason for your dc's height.  If you barely pull it up, your dc will be really short.  If you pull it up to the top of your previous row, your dc will be 2 chains high.  However, if you pull up that first loop to ~ 2 chains high, your dc will be 3 chains high.

 

After someone in here told me about the golden loop, I had to practice making a taller dc a LOT until it was consistent.  I was making 15 panels for a blanket that were only 8 dc's wide and changed color every 2 rows.  My panels were coming out different sizes, until I switched to paying attention to that first loop.

[USpolishgirl]

Hello and welcome!.

 

Redrosesdz is right. Those are two ways that you can correcet that problem as far as I know.

 

Krys

[redrosesdz]

I just thought of something.  You are probably done with the blanket and don't want to redo it.  If that's the case, just add an edging around the entire blanket.  The edging will hide the turning chains.  If you like the size, make a simple edge of scs.  Just make sure that the scs on the sides are evenly spaced and that you make 3 scs in the corners to keep them sharp.

[alacajun]

to crochetville

[Tampa Doll]

Hi  and Welcome     to Crochetville from the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Grab your yarn and hooks, put your feet up and sit a spell.

[vdecker]

Thanks Ladies, I will give these a try and see which one works best for me.  And I will do the edging on the one that is done to see if that helps.

 

Have a wonderful day.

[Terri/LadySorce]

Howdy from Oklahoma

 

 Welcome to Crochetville

[Tribble79]

Hello from Ohio! Glad everyone had some fixing suggestions for you