Stuck on row 3

[NanaBea]

Row three is built on two rows of hdc.  I think the instructions mean this row is the top row and the row before last means the second row down. I’ve started row 3 over several times and it’s to be followed with a ch2 and hdc across 

which should have 27 stitches in it. I am nine stitches short. Here is the instruction, What the finished project should look like and what I have. It seems I have two big gaps pointed out with my crochet hook

[NCcountrygal]

It’s a matter of counting stitches correctly in the previous rows. Place a marker in your ch2 which is the first Hdc of each row.  It looks like you are making a version of the tulip stitch with columns     It might help to search for video help on crochet tulip stitch   The setup row is usually the hardest for me and easy to misplace where a stitch belongs. Once you conquer row 3 the next rows will be a bit easier. 
Don’t have my cable books handy at the moment. 
 

[NCcountrygal]

Here’s a similar stitch in Fisherman’s sweater. If I come across that pattern I’ll see what it’s called in that pattern. 

[Granny Square]

Welcome to the 'ville, NanaBea.

The loop your hook is pointing at - one thing to be careful of when you are doing post stitches is to hold onto the loop on your hook to make sure it doesn't loosen up with all that reaching--hold onto the loop on the hook with your finger as you make the stitch, don't let it stretch.  However, it is the nature of a post stitch to be a tad gappier than rows of 'plain' stitches, but not that much.

You are 9 stitches short out of 27, so you are missing a third of your stitches.  One thing that is a little mind bending the first time you do post stitches that travel sideways, is that you are doing stitches out of order.  Typically, and as in your pattern, the only stitches "skipped" are not truly skipped in the sense that you will lose a stitch in your total count.  Example, after the first FPTR in row 3, there is an *, and then 'skip the next stitch' - this is because you 'used up' that stitch-top when you made a stitch below that stitch-top (I hope that makes sense).

I just counted the stitches, and it DOES work out to 27 stitches as written, I'll try to illustrate--I think you may have missed that you need to repeat the stuff in the bracket 3 times.

[Granny Square]

I put red numbers in row 3's scanto count the stitches, 1 + 2, then the stuff in the bracket is 3 stitches x3=9, then 1, so a subtotal of 13.  Then you do all that AGAIN, so now you have 13x2=26 stitches.  Then at the very end is 1 stitch in the last stitch, for a total of 27.  I hope that makes sense?

[NanaBea]

4 hours ago, Granny Square said:

Welcome to the 'ville, NanaBea.

The loop your hook is pointing at - one thing to be careful of when you are doing post stitches is to hold onto the loop on your hook to make sure it doesn't loosen up with all that reaching--hold onto the loop on the hook with your finger as you make the stitch, don't let it stretch.  However, it is the nature of a post stitch to be a tad gappier than rows of 'plain' stitches, but not that much.

You are 9 stitches short out of 27, so you are missing a third of your stitches.  One thing that is a little mind bending the first time you do post stitches that travel sideways, is that you are doing stitches out of order.  Typically, and as in your pattern, the only stitches "skipped" are not truly skipped in the sense that you will lose a stitch in your total count.  Example, after the first FPTR in row 3, there is an *, and then 'skip the next stitch' - this is because you 'used up' that stitch-top when you made a stitch below that stitch-top (I hope that makes sense).

I just counted the stitches, and it DOES work out to 27 stitches as written, I'll try to illustrate--I think you may have missed that you need to repeat the stuff in the bracket 3 times.

That gap came from the skip four.  Here’s a rough diagram of what I was trying.

 

4 hours ago, Granny Square said:

Welcome to the 'ville, NanaBea.

The loop your hook is pointing at - one thing to be careful of when you are doing post stitches is to hold onto the loop on your hook to make sure it doesn't loosen up with all that reaching--hold onto the loop on the hook with your finger as you make the stitch, don't let it stretch.  However, it is the nature of a post stitch to be a tad gappier than rows of 'plain' stitches, but not that much.

You are 9 stitches short out of 27, so you are missing a third of your stitches.  One thing that is a little mind bending the first time you do post stitches that travel sideways, is that you are doing stitches out of order.  Typically, and as in your pattern, the only stitches "skipped" are not truly skipped in the sense that you will lose a stitch in your total count.  Example, after the first FPTR in row 3, there is an *, and then 'skip the next stitch' - this is because you 'used up' that stitch-top when you made a stitch below that stitch-top (I hope that makes sense).

I just counted the stitches, and it DOES work out to 27 stitches as written, I'll try to illustrate--I think you may have missed that you need to repeat the stuff in the bracket 3 times.

The gap came from the skip for on the first row. Here is a rough draft of what I was trying to do

[Granny Square]

I just tried that (skipping 4 stitches and fptr in the next st on row 1...it was quite a trial to hold onto that loop.  It looked a tiny bit better doing a double treble post stitch instead, for me--possibly because my stitch gauge tends toward shorter stitches than average based on most pattern gauges, the fabric was actually folding over a bit with just a treble's height at that slant.  Maybe try DTR stitch in that spot?  

The reason you are skipping a stitch in row 2 is because you are creating a stitch whose 'stitch top' floats over the top of that stitch; if you didn't skip that stitch, you'd end up adding a stitch.  But yeah, it does leave a little gap below that slightly stretched out stitch top

It occurs to me, that it might look better to you if you made the unconventional move of combining 2 stitches into 1--which I've never seen a pattern do in this situation, but why not?  You know how to combine 2 stitches into 1 for a decrease, right--like hdc2tog?  Usually it's combining 2 of the same stitch type but my thought is instead of skipping that stitch, put an incomplete HDC in that formerly skipped spot (up to but not including the last yo and pull thru, so 3 loops on the hook), and then make either a tr or dtr where it says to, 2 rows below to the point where there are 4 loops on the hook (3 of them being from the incomplete HDC), yo and pull thru all the loops - this will make 1 stitch top so your stitch count will be correct, and the gap will be filled with (most of a) HDC.

...I just tried what I outlined above, it does look a lot better, both filling the gap behind the FP stitch and reducing the size of that stitch top - win/win!

[bgs]

This is what I get up thru repeating whats in the brackets 3 times.

 

[NanaBea]

10 hours ago, bgs said:

This is what I get up thru repeating whats in the brackets 3 times.

 

Thanks everybody I got it! I am very visual and the posting from bag lady helped so much. After reading all the comments and looking at the example I found what my problem was. I was trying to combine the stitch count between the two rows instead of literally following the stitch count as individual rows, if that makes any sense !

[bgs]

I understand.  I kept getting lost and was getting ready to rewrite the row out putting a step or two per line as its much easier for me to follow that way.