Reading Patterns

[Alex_ot]

I am newer to crochet, and up to this point have relied on videos to create my blankets.  I am familiar/capable of a variety of stitches now, and have a pattern that I want to try out but it doesn’t have a video. The instructions read as follows

6 ch, starting in the fourth ch from the hook, 3tr, Miss 3 tr, slst into 3 chsp, (3ch 3tr) in 3 chsp. Turn. 6 sts.

I know the abbreviations but I get a little hung up after slst into 3 chsp.  Could anyone explain a little further?  Thanks!

[Tampa Doll]

It is telling you, you will slip stitch into 3 chains. After you chain, you will end up with 6 triple crochet.

I am sure someone will come and explain it better.

[Granny Square]

Welcome to the 'ville!  I am going to guess you are using UK terms.   That's OK, I speak UK.   

Can you link to a pattern if it's a free one on the internet, or a picture if it's a for purchase pattern?  This sounds like it may be a "corner-to-corner/c2c" to me, aka crazy stitch, brick stitch, probably a few other things.  Which is a very disorienting stitch, it's 'crazy' because it is unconventional, the rows go every which way (more or less).  

I see Tampa Doll replied as I was typing.  I'm reading the meaning differently, and I think she may have missed the "sp" (space) part: "slst into 3-chain space".  I'm not reading it as 'slst into each of the next 3 chains', which happens when a pattern wants you to 'move over' 3 stitches with the shortest stitch possible.

If you see 'slip stitch into a chain space, chain 3' it means you are creating the equivalent of a UK TR 'from the chain space up' rather than working a TR around a span of 3 chains in the row below. "slst into 3 chsp, (3ch 3tr) in 3 chsp" will create 4 TRs, one being the first 3 chains.

I hope this isn't too confusing.  

 

 

[Alex_ot]

It is a corner to corner.  I’ve seen a lot of videos that use double crochet but not many use triple.  I tried following along to see if I could match what they were doing in the videos to what is in the pattern.  I believe I understand what you were saying about the 3chsp.  What I was not able to work out from that is “turn. 3sts. *new row CJ 6”

in the videos they went right into their next ch 6 after the turn.  

[Granny Square]

Are you in the US or UK?  Because Deramore's is a UK yarn company, and it is using UK crochet terms (another clue, take a look at the abbreviations col=colour).  A UK TR is the same as a US DC.  I see the pattern has UK DC, which is US SC.  Slip stitch and chain are the same, but otherwise all othr UK stitches are named 1 'rank' higher than the US names.  UK terminology has no SC, a silly rhyme to remember is "if it says single crochet, it ain't UK"

The reason I guessed it was in UK terms from your first post is you typed "6 ch, starting in the fourth ch from the hook, 3tr, Miss 3 tr, slst into 3 chsp, (3ch 3tr) in 3 chsp. Turn. 6 sts.   Aside from the stitch names being different, there are very subtle phrasing differences that you don't see as often in US patterns.  And sometimes spelling differences other than the u in color. 

• "6 ch", where in US you usually see the word order"ch 6"
• "starting in the 4th ch from the hook" is normal for US DC when starting from a chain, because this gives you the 3 unused chains become the turning chain and act as a US DC; if this were really a US treble pattern it would have said 'ch 7, TR in 5th chain from the hook".
• "miss" is common in UK patterns, but you rarely see it in US -- you'd more likely see "skip" instead.

So, reading this pattern and in your head assuming treble meant US treble, it's probably going to look wonky.

I can't think of anything the CJ6 could mean other than a typo an the J should have been H, which the adjacent key on the keyboard.

[Alex_ot]

CJ was a typo on my part.  It is a UK pattern, so if UK tr= US Db everything is making much more sense. 
 

I understand for the first row I will be chaining 6, doing 3 double crochets (starting in the 4th chain from the hook).

still a bit uncertain on 3 STS.  In the videos I’ve watched at this point we would chain 6 again and repeat in order to start the “v” .

 

thank you so much for taking the time to attempt to explain to me! Probably should have researched a little better before picking this particular pattern to attempt to follow. 

[magiccrochetfan]

At the end of first row where it says three stitches, that is just a count of how many stitches you made in that row.  So you can count and be sure you are on track. 

[Granny Square]

Some patterns give a 'sanity check' stitch count at the end of the row, so if you don't have that many stitches, you know you made a mistake.  "do this, do that.  x stitches", where "x stitches" is the sanity check count, not an instruction to do more.  Notice every row ends with "x stitches".

But if this is row 1...most patterns would typically count 4 stitches, counting the 3 skipped chains as a stitch.  This pattern seems to count the skipped chains as a chain space.  

[Granny Square]

 Hi Magic!  OP, Magiccrochetfan and I often post at the same time, saying the same thing!

[magiccrochetfan]

Hi GrannySquare!  Nice to see you 🙂    I thought it was odd that they didn't count the chs as a stitch, not the clearest way to convey the structure imho.  

Alex, you might not need any more references, but I wanted to show you one that includes a stitch diagram because that always helps me understand patterns, it is right at the beginning here  http://redagapeblog.com/c2c-tutorial/   Then there's a video, and a phototutorial.