help w/ pattern (have 1 mth to finish!)

[windsong698]

I am an advanced crocheter, but for the life of me, I cannot understand this pattern! Everything works FINE with the directions up to row 4, but when I start to do row 5 on my own ("continue in this manner"), my count is off. Through row 4 pattern pattern says I should end up with 4 double crochet left at the end of the row, but as soon as I get to row 5, I do the 7 stitches and then V stitch , but near the end I am left with 8 double crochets and/or I get 5 double crochets at the end of the row instead of the 4.

I have one month to finish this. OF COURSE this has to be the one pattern I can't finish, because it's for my granddaughter's ceremony and my daughter-in-law has issues with me to begin with and since she chose this pattern, I HAVE to find a way to do this!

Thank you! PS This pattern is Australian, so their double is US single, their triple is US double.  I'm doing the smaller size, so ignore the ones in parentheses.

 

 

 

[Granny Square]

I am confused.  If you end row 4 and are supposed to have 4 dc unused stitches at the end, how can row 4 instructions end in '1 tr in each of the last 2 tr, 1 tr in top of turning ch...  this implies you have filled up all the stitches to the very end of the row, including the turning chain.  And all rows in the bit you posted here mention making the last stitch into the turning chain except row 2.  It also doesn't mention MAKING turning chains in what you posted, but I'm guessing there was a general instruction elsewhere to do so for every row.

Regardless...What helps me when something doesn't seem to be going right is to diagram the written instructions--have you ever worked with patterns that were diagrammed, not written?  Your pattern is simple stitch wise, so wouldn't be hard to do - o for chain, x for dc, | for treble, \/ for 2 trebles into 1 stitch is all you need (don't bother with the cross hatches on the trebles, it will go quicker!).  You'd want to start the first row in the direction you'd crochet it, right to left, then the next row left to right.  I'd diagram row 4 since that has the right number of stitches to start with, then move on to the problematic row 5.  Yes it is a lot of stitches to draw out, but it will uncover whether you've erred somewhere, or whether the pattern has, and hopefully you won't have to go beyond plotting 2 rows.

[Granny Square]

I just tried the pattern as you posted above.  I started with 51 chains, worked back to get 50 (UK) dc.  Now I get how they are doing the turning "chain".

Basically,  row 2 thru 4 are identical except the number of plain stitches between increases, which adds 1 in each set, each row.  So continuing this pattern until the number of stitches doubles .... is not any different from what you already did.

After the ninth repeat there are 3 dc left, into which you put 2 dc into the first, and 1 into each of the next 2.

I did not go all the way to the 160 stitch point, but it does work from row 2-5 so should work for all rows after that.

 

 

 

 

[Granny Square]

Meant to get back to this sooner, this is a very rough sketch of row 3, 4 and 5, with just 1 repeat (not 9) of the portion in the brackets.  You can see that row 5 follows the prior rows which you made with no trouble, row 5 (and beyond) are identical except the number of plain stitches between the increases by 1 each row.  Each row begins and end with 3 tr or the turning scheme standing in for the beginning tr.

 

 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Granny Square