Cardigan pattern help

[annahlbrecht]

Hi, I'm quite new to crochet and I've been stumped by the first step in this pattern:

ch 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 29, 32, hdc in 2nd ch from hook, and across (18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 28, 31 total sts)

I just don't know what the list of numbers mean, what do you do after you've made a chain of 19?

[Granny Square]

The pattern is multi-sized, it probably says somewhere "size newborn(3mos, 6mos, 9 mos, 12mos, 2 years, 3years)" --making up the sizes, I don't know what you're making.  Usually the first size is outside the parenthesis, and will say something like "directions are given for size newborn, changes other sizes in parentheses), because most patterns have size-common instructions in addition to size-specific ones.  So, in your example, you'd only chain 19 if you were making the first size, but you'd chain 22 for the third size. etc.

Your pattern may not have used the parentheses, but I'm sure that's still what it means.  Some patterns (Yarnspirations comes to mind) color code the instructions, which is handy so you can remember to follow the blue size for example.  If they're not color coded, I circle the numbers for the size I'm making.

These multi-size numbers probably also pertained to the number of skeins you needed to buy, so you may need to pay attention to that!

[annahlbrecht]

I see!! Great, thank you!