Self Taught....GASP! Doing it all wrong!

[Shellybrook]

Self Taught here

...got this great book from a friend of mine which was supposed to help me read the patterns better...I of course skipped around and used it like a dictionary looking up what I wanted to know when i wanted to know it. I learned some great motifs and spider webs, fish nets etc...but...Friday night...I stumble across a description of the DC...keep in mind I have about 10 WIPS...with DC in them....I'm skipping the first YO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which I guess makes it an HDC. So the WIPS are all working just fine...here's the challenge. I really have to finish my WIPS before I start doing the DC appropriately or I will be confused about what was DC and what was HDC.

 

Had Grandma been alive this would NEVER have happened. to top it all off the DC is going to be a challenge for me, after all this I can't figure out how to YO first it just doesn't seem to flow in my hands. I'm so dissappointed!

[RachelG]

Don't worry, it happens to a lot of us! Go here for a video on dc's:

 

http://www.anniesattic.com/crochet/content.html?content_id=55

[Aggie May]

Sounds like you have been doing a European DC (Double Crochet) which is a short stitch, called a SC (Single Crochet) in the US.

A HDC (Half Double Crochet) starts ith a YO but when you hook through the work, you then do a YO and hook through all 3 loops on the hook, instead of through 2 then through 2 again as for a full DC.

The best thing you can do, to familiarise yourself with the main stitches, is make some swatches of each stitch so you get the idea of the start and finish of the rows and how each stitch is formed.

Label them, then later, the swatches can be used as reference.

Good luck with this fascinating craft.

Have fun.

Colleen.

[fuzzy ferret]

RachelG gave an excellent Link! I use the videos all the time to help me with stitches that I'd forgotten how to do since I hadn't used them in a while. I would just complete my projects the way I had been doing them, and then start with a clean slate and do it the other way. That way you can start practicing on using the other method.

 

Krystal

[chichiturtle]

Don't sweat it! Last December I taught myself to knit. As a leftie I decided it was better to try it right handed so I wouldn't have to try to convert the patterns. Well I struggled and learned and when I made my first piece of clothing a shrug I took it to work and showed my co-worker who knits and she said oh the twisted knit stitch that's advanced for a new knitter. I slapped my head and realized I had taught myself to purl right handed and knit left handed and my stitches were all backwards. I love the shrug and wear it often. Each time I look at it I realize a lesson learned! Don't be discouraged the wips are going to be unique and special

[ChainOFools]

You definitely are not alone!! When I started crocheting I used to hold both the hook and yarn in my right hand...one of my work colleagues spotted this and encouraged me to re-learn...even now when I make a starting chain and do my foundation row, I still do this as I find it easier, then I switch the yarn to my left hand...

[Rapvnzle]

Omigosh.. I had the same issues.. MAJOR issues joining rounds!! I was all confused when the pattern said join in the top of the chain.. I kept putting it in the TOP chain and I was also starting the round in the same chain that I started with.. BAAD..and very annoying. Nothing like teaching yourself from a book when there is NO ONE around to show you LIVE how to do it correctly! It took me a YEAR to get a pullover done!

[Mermaiden]

Haha, don't feel bad. For a good while I was doing my SC's in the FLO and had no idea there were even 2 loops to go through.

[Paralee]

Sounds like you have been doing a European DC (Double Crochet) which is a short stitch, called a SC (Single Crochet) in the US.

A HDC (Half Double Crochet) starts ith a YO but when you hook through the work, you then do a YO and hook through all 3 loops on the hook, instead of through 2 then through 2 again as for a full DC.

<snip>

Or you may have been doing an Extended Single Crochet -- a stitch I had never heard of until last night. Found it while <cough> ::reading the instructions:: <cough> in a book that I've had for ... well, a long time. Don't worry, we all learn new things all the time, no matter how long we've been crocheting.

[crochetqueen]

Because I was born with an extra thumb (it has been removed) I hold my hook very very funny. But I do get the job done and that is what matters really. When I teach a class I ALWAYS tell everyone, do what is comfortable to you. Don't worry you will get the hang of it and don't think of things as "mistakes" they are "Design elements"

[squish_52]

when i started i always crocheted in the back loop, didn't knowthere were two! finally realized my mistake when i was browsing around crochet pattern central...talk about me freaking out! but i find that it's easier to crochet now that i've got the hang of the two loop thing

[Shellybrook]

Thanks for all your help.

 

ONE HAND????? I can't fathom doing it with one hand!

 

As always lessons learned on Crochetville. I'll surely be practicing my double stitch...now back to my WIPS.

[Sylvia Lee]

Haha, don't feel bad. For a good while I was doing my SC's in the FLO and had no idea there were even 2 loops to go through.

 

Me too! And I always wondered why my creations looked a little different...used to figure it was because I was left-handed. Then I was reading a pattern one day that said, "working through front loops only..." and I was like, whoa! wait! but that's what I always do!

 

Glad to know I'm not alone.

[smg55039]

If it's any consolation - your non-crochet friends will never know.

 

As a fellow self-taught hooker, I wish you luck in your yarn adventures.