Help with understanding Tortoise shell crochet pattern

[Jillow]

Hello, I am a bit new to crochet, and a first time poster. I am reading a pattern from a book called "Woodland Crochet", and the instructions for the shell do not seem to match up with the amount of stitches I think they should produce.

I haven't made it past Rnd 1 for the shell, but I made the head and legs of the tortoise without any trouble: "

• ch 6, start in 2nd ch from hook

Rnd 1: sc, 3sc, 3sc in next ch, 3sc, 2sc in next ch"

Already, I end up running out of chains to work in; I single crochet 4, then increase by 3 in the 5th chain, and I have no room to increase by 2. I have assumed that sc and 3sc are both normal single crochets since the pattern describes 3sc in the next ch in the same rnd. 

Sorry if this question is a bit long but I've had no luck trying to figure out this pattern. Thank you!

Edited September 27, 2019 by Jillow

[Granny Square]

Welcome to the 'ville!   I agree, you have 5 chains to work with, and it's telling you to work into 9 (1+3+1+3+1), and create 12 stitches (1+3+3+3+2).

Looking ahead, does round 2's instruction seem to to make sense with having 12 stitches to work into, and not some other number?  If it does, I think I'd just make 12 stitches as evenly as you can around the 5 chains you have to work with, and keep going from there.

I looked for errata for that book, but didn't find any.

[Jillow]

7 hours ago, Granny Square said:

Welcome to the 'ville!   I agree, you have 5 chains to work with, and it's telling you to work into 9 (1+3+1+3+1), and create 12 stitches (1+3+3+3+2).

Looking ahead, does round 2's instruction seem to to make sense with having 12 stitches to work into, and not some other number?  If it does, I think I'd just make 12 stitches as evenly as you can around the 5 chains you have to work with, and keep going from there.

I looked for errata for that book, but didn't find any.

Hello and thank you for your input. The next round does seem to indicate working into 12 stitches, increasing by 2 every other stitch: "

Rnd 2: sc, 2sc in next st (18)"

I feel like there are other instances like Rnd 1 where the number of stitches doesn't match up with how many stitches it asks you to work. Is it safe to assume that as long as I end up with an even and correct amount of stitches by the end of the round, I should be fine?

[Granny Square]

I can't see why it wouldn't work.  I also just realized that if round 1 had said "in next stitch" after every step instead of just 2 of them, it would work--there are 5 steps given, so that would use 5 chains to get 12 stitches.  

I also hope there is a good photo of the shell in the book to guide you.

Edited September 28, 2019 by Granny Square