I need help with a pattern

[Smoochyedi]

I am crocheting an afghan. It is square by square. I am stuck on the first one. I am on the step that reads as follows, hdc in first dc to form last ch-2sp: 12 dc and 4 ch-sps. Please help. Thank you.

Edith Lineberry 

[bgs]

hdc in first dc 

Dont think about it just literally do exactly what it says to do.  Its making your final corner.  Put your hook into that first  dc or most likely the top of a ch 3 and make a hdc. It makes a sturdier join than the more typical ch2 join with a sl st.  If you do not like the way the hdc join looks you can substitute ch 2 slip stitch into first dc.

12 dc and 4 ch-sps is your stitch count for that round

[Granny Square]

Bgs, I agree on 'do exactly what it says to do' but a comment on your substitute of chain 2, slst - I don't know if it is the case in this pattern, but often lace patterns with a round of chain loops will have you end a round of chain loops in the middle of a chain loop by making a 'hybrid' chain loop--example "chain 3, DC" or "'chain 2, HDC"--edited to add, the DC is made into the point the chain loop ends, in other words the DC is sideways more or less.  This leaves your hook in the middle of a chain space, with that chain space completed a little to the left of the hook  (in other words, the hdc "becomes" 2 chains of the chain loop in the OP's pattern).  Smoochchyedi, I can try to draw a diagram if this is clear as mud.

In your suggestion, the hook ends up at the end of the chain space, not the middle.  This could possibly make a difference in the set-up of what happens next.  Some afghan blocks have a couple of rounds of chain loops in them, so it might apply here.

Edited February 16, 2022 by Granny Square