Crooked mosaic

[Sue69]

I’m making a mosaic Afghan which depicts houses in vertical lines.  My houses are leaning to the right. Any ideas why and how to fix the problem.

sue

[bgs]

Could you show us a photo so we might be able to see what is going on? I havent worked mosaic but have a couple of thoughts.  Crochet stitches have a natural skew.  I think in mosaic you do not turn and work back across but always start a row on the same side which will compound the skew while turning and working back and forth balances out the skew.  I dont know what is done in mosaic to compensate for the skew.  The other thing that comes to mind would be making those first and last stitches in the right place.  

Hopefully someone will be along that has more experience than I do.

[Susan from NC]

Picture is a good idea.  Just a few thoughts....

Along with the natural pull of crochet, sometimes in Mosaic, you miss the correct stitch from the row below and that tends to skew the work as well.  Good stitch count is important until you 'get it', the pattern I mean.  If your first row is inaccurate, the rest may follow suit and the lean becomes more evident as the piece grows.

[NCcountrygal]

Mosaic or tapestry or stranded type color work?

Edited April 15, 2022 by NCcountrygal
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[Granny Square]

Is it one of these patterns by chance?  (I'm not a mosaic fan or expert, I prefer tapestry for colorwork myself, but it helps if we can see what is going on)

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/canal-houses-cushion

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/spooky-moon-overlay-mosaic---haunted-house

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mosaic-house-cushion

I agree with the others that there is a skew in crochet if you are working in the round - which can be mitigated by working into the back loop.  However, most afghans are not in the round, is yours?

And a photo of your work that is crooked will help us (hopefully) to diagnose what you mean by 'crooked' (might be a lot of things), so we can better suggest solutions.

Edited April 16, 2022 by Granny Square

[Granny Square]

In case your mosaic project IS in the round, my ugly swatch above demonstrates the skew discussed earlier, and how back loop fixes it (but alters the stitch appearance somewhat) .  The bottom grey stripe was plain sc in the round, grey stitches into grey stitches, you can see the right leaning skew - the red stitches, the first made into the last grey stitch and the rest into red stitches, are in the back loop with no skew.

I just discovered I could edit the size of an inserted image, not sure if this is a new thing (ctrl + right click)

Edited April 16, 2022 by Granny Square

[SandravT]

Hi Su,

I'm assuming you already work in the back loops only, since the front loop needs to stay unworked for the rows above. And I assume your stitch count is correct, since the whole design depends on following a chart. I actually found this page because I had the same problem (and I was doing everything right). Until someone advised me to yarn under instead of yarn over. This way, the single crochets stay perfectly on top of each other. Problem solved! In the beginning it feels weird, but I got used to it so quickly! Good luck and happy crocheting.