Llama Help Please!!

[LlamaCrochet]

Hello! I’m a beginner and this is my first  project. (Here’s a llama.)

I have made the head and neck but I’m confused by this part - where the neck ends and it increases in size to make the body.

The pattern says

R32: crochet 13ch (1inc, 12sc, 18sc, 11sc, 1inc) 

For this pattern, usually the part in brackets is a stitch count not extra instructions! I have so far just done 13 chain stitches but can’t work out where to put the part in brackets.

Thanks for any help! 

[Granny Square]

Welcome to the 'ville!

Brackets or parentheses don't only mean a final stitch count; they can appear elsewhere to mean do several things in 1 stitch.  Example, "(2 dc, ch2, 2dc) in next chain space" is a conventionally worded instruction in the middle of a pattern line to explain how to make a V stitch.

Your instruction for rnd 32 is oddly written.  "crochet 13ch (1inc, 12sc, 18sc, 11sc, 1inc)", is the same as "crochet 13ch (1inc, 41sc, 1inc)", because 41=  12+18+11--something seems to be missing.  (edit - keep reading, it does make sense)

Playing detective:  (I'm assuming an increase = 2 stitches into 1, so "1 inc" uses 1 stitch and creates 2, and "2 inc" uses 2 and creates 4 stitches.)

The prior round (rnd 31) ended in 18 stitches.  If the 13 chains was meant to create a base to add stitches increase from the little neck of 18 stitches, to a bigger body: 18 from prior round + 13 chains + 2 added by increases = only 33 stitches.

The following round (rnd 33) is '2 inc, 42 sc, 1 inc (48 sts)'.  So if this row is correct, there are a  total of 3 stitches increased from round 31--therefore round 31 had to have ended in 45 stitches, not 33.  There are 12 stitches missing from round 32 if I'm looking at this correctly (and it's entirely possible I'm missing something), but I'm not picturing how the  ---  oh wait, a brain flash, literally mid-typing.  If I'm right, the designer could have explained this a lot better.

My theory:  the 13 chains are going to end up across the llama's back.  I was having trouble picturing how the chain was going to work until the 'flash'- you are going to be working in an oval, sort of, that (starting from the tail end) goes up 1 side of the chain, around the 18 stitches of the neck, and back down the chain to the tail.  What the pattern does not explain, is that to  do the body (from tail to neck-hole back to tail), you will be working on 1 side of the chain, then around the neck's 18 sts as usual, then back down the underside of the chain.  If this is confusing, there are a lot of video tutorials for 'making an oval', your's is different because your 'oval' includes a llama-neck-hole and won't be lying flat like a doily (more like pouch), but it might help you to understand how to work along both sides of a chain.

Sorry for all the rambling, but its shows my thought process for trying to make sense of it.  The construction was not obvious with the way the pattern was written, it was only when it dawned on me that the missing stitches was about the length of the chain.

 

[LlamaCrochet]

On 10/20/2020 at 10:43 PM, Granny Square said:

Welcome to the 'ville!

Brackets or parentheses don't only mean a final stitch count; they can appear elsewhere to mean do several things in 1 stitch.  Example, "(2 dc, ch2, 2dc) in next chain space" is a conventionally worded instruction in the middle of a pattern line to explain how to make a V stitch.

Your instruction for rnd 32 is oddly written.  "crochet 13ch (1inc, 12sc, 18sc, 11sc, 1inc)", is the same as "crochet 13ch (1inc, 41sc, 1inc)", because 41=  12+18+11--something seems to be missing.  (edit - keep reading, it does make sense)

Playing detective:  (I'm assuming an increase = 2 stitches into 1, so "1 inc" uses 1 stitch and creates 2, and "2 inc" uses 2 and creates 4 stitches.)

The prior round (rnd 31) ended in 18 stitches.  If the 13 chains was meant to create a base to add stitches increase from the little neck of 18 stitches, to a bigger body: 18 from prior round + 13 chains + 2 added by increases = only 33 stitches.

The following round (rnd 33) is '2 inc, 42 sc, 1 inc (48 sts)'.  So if this row is correct, there are a  total of 3 stitches increased from round 31--therefore round 31 had to have ended in 45 stitches, not 33.  There are 12 stitches missing from round 32 if I'm looking at this correctly (and it's entirely possible I'm missing something), but I'm not picturing how the  ---  oh wait, a brain flash, literally mid-typing.  If I'm right, the designer could have explained this a lot better.

My theory:  the 13 chains are going to end up across the llama's back.  I was having trouble picturing how the chain was going to work until the 'flash'- you are going to be working in an oval, sort of, that (starting from the tail end) goes up 1 side of the chain, around the 18 stitches of the neck, and back down the chain to the tail.  What the pattern does not explain, is that to  do the body (from tail to neck-hole back to tail), you will be working on 1 side of the chain, then around the neck's 18 sts as usual, then back down the underside of the chain.  If this is confusing, there are a lot of video tutorials for 'making an oval', your's is different because your 'oval' includes a llama-neck-hole and won't be lying flat like a doily (more like pouch), but it might help you to understand how to work along both sides of a chain.

Sorry for all the rambling, but its shows my thought process for trying to make sense of it.  The construction was not obvious with the way the pattern was written, it was only when it dawned on me that the missing stitches was about the length of the chain.

 

Thanks so much for your help, Granny Square!! I worked out how to finish the body from your advice - especially the part about the oval! ❤️

[Granny Square]

  I"m so glad it worked out!   I think it is a pretty clever construction for an animal toy, but this pattern should have at least added the phrase 'now, working into the unused loops of the underside of the chain....' at the relevant spot, and maybe a photo. Normally patterns with a lot of step-by step photos annoy me, but I think it's warranted on that row.  I'm sure you are not the only one who got stuck on that round.