Newby to crocheting - pattern help

[joannexlx]

Hi i am new to crocheting and have learnt via youtube videos. I having difficulty understanding this pattern can anyone help.

Row 2: hdc in same stitch, increase, *hdc, increase* repeat from * to * across, ch 2, turn (59)

Im struggling with - does it mean every second stitch there is an increase or every stitch 

Thanks Joanne 

[Granny Square]

Welcome to the 'ville!

First, the pattern gives you a 'sanity check' number of stitches you should have at the end of row 2 - the (59) at the end of the row.

I'm reading this as every other stitch is an increase.  Did row 1 end with something like 40 stitches?  Then increasing every other stitch would give you (about) another 20, depending on whether the turning chain counts as a stitch.

[joannexlx]

Hi yes thank you for the reply.

Yes last row was 40. Is the first stitch on row 2 an increase or the second. Thank you again 

[Granny Square]

Not an increase.  Sometimes if it's not too many stitches I'll 'draw a picture' as a sanity check.

The very first "row" is the header, just to help me count to 40  .  We started with 40 stitches, so there's 4 groups of 10.  Ignore the numbers (because they're counting left to right, not right to left), just know the count of stitches between the thicker lines is 10.

The second row is the number of stitches in row 1, so I put 1 stitch into each cell, for a total of 40.

The third row, reading right to left, is your row 2.  I counted the first stitch (right above the red arrow) as 2, so as an increase, then alternated increases every other stitch - you get 60, not 59, so the first stitch is not an increase, which I assume means the turning chain doesn't count as a stitch.  I hope this makes sense.

 

[joannexlx]

Thank you for your help it's much appreciated and makes sense.

This is the pattern I am following however I'm doing a chain of 35 instead of 42 to make a smaller hood. I'm sure this is simple but I'm making complicated work from it lol. Is there any way you can explain it similar or is this as simple as it gets. Thanks for your patience.

[Granny Square]

I'm old school and like to make a paper copy, if i was altering a pattern and subtracting 7 stitches I'd mark up  my pattern ahead of time where the stitch numbers would be different.

Aside from that...so it makes sense thru row 2, and then thru rows 3-18 after that which are just back and forth across 57 minus 7 = 52 stitches, right?

What looks odd to me is they had you chain 2 with the old color at the end of row 18, then join the pink.  Two things: you chain 1 usually when starting a row with a SC , and the chain doesn't count as a stitch, and I would have joined the pink before chaining 1, and chained 1 with the pink and carried on from there. 

Beyond that, row 19 simplified IMO is just : join new color, chain 1, sc in same stitch, treble in next stitch, and then alternate sc and treble across--you should end up with the same number of stitches as you started with, the chain 1 doesn't count as a stitch.  Does this help?