Weird Dimensions

[Outofmymindyo]

So I'm admittedly new to crocheting, but I love it and I've got a TON of yarn on the way. Anyway, I got some Sugar'n Cream yarn from the arts & crafts center here on base, but I just seem to be doing something wrong with my blanket I'm trying.

 

I've messed up a few things, but overall I'm doing the same pattern that I came up with on my own. There's no stitch counting, as it's just a square blanket. Anyway, I have a picture of it at (warning large picture) http://www.geek-land.net/crochet.jpg and you can see it's a bit off. Now I know the bottom part is wider than the top part because I'm not that great at keeping my stitches at the same tension as I could be. The problem lies with the rows that are DC. I do two rows of single crochet, and then one row of double crochet.

 

When I end the second row of SC, I chain 3 chains to give the proper height for the row of double crochet, but that is giving me problems because it actually seems to widen the row, causing the sides to be weird and uneven.

 

Anyway, if anyone has any information on what I might be doing wrong, or needs to ask me any other information to help find out what I'm doing wrong I'd really, really appreciate it.

 

Thank you all!

[uboo64]

I am not good at techinal answers, but I am sure someone here will be able to help out better, I know for myself, even after crocheting for years, whenever I use sc in a larger pattern I get messed up. I always seem to miss sc stitches, so I tend to stick to hdc and dc mixes.

 

I would maybe count your stitches, at least at the beginning, so you can go back and check where you went wrong.

 

To me it looks like you have more dc than sc, at the end of those rows.

[sherryzzz]

have you counted the stitches in your first row and compared it with how many stitches you have in your last row? it looks like you may be dropping stitches in your sc rows (an easy thing to do). When you finish your dc row, try chaining 1 before you turn. Then turn and do your first sc in the very first stitch, then sc in each stitch across. To start your dc row, try chaining only 2 instead of 3.

[butterfly_girl]

I think it's that sometimes in patterns, ch3 for a row of double crochet counts as the first double crochet. maybe when you do that you need to skip the first sc.....that would keep it even.

[Granny Square]

Here is a very good illustration of DC stitches.

http://www.crochetcabana.com/tutorials/double-crochet.htm

 

Chain 3, skip the first stitch in the row below, dc across, then dc into the top of the turning chain in the row below if the prior row was DC or taller, otherwise dc into the last sc of the row below.

 

A dc edge is not ruler-straight. Look at your stitches. Row 1 stitches line up perfectly with row 3 stitches, and row 2with row 4, but adjacent odd/even row stitches are slightly offset from each other. Therefore, the side edge zigs one row and zags back the next, which is more obvious in taller stitches than in SC.

 

This is normal! Sometimes the turning ch-3 is gappy, some folks prefer to do a ch-2; this might make the edges a little straighter.

 

I think I spotted 1 row where you may have accidently increased, but it doesn't look like that is always happening. It is a good idea to count your stitches every so often, make sure your are still working on the same number that you started with to make sure your work doesn't grow or shrink. I think consistent tension is what you need to work on, that just takes practice.

[Outofmymindyo]

Thank you so much everyone. I am so happy that you were all able to give me some advice, and I will certainly be counting stitches after this, and I was also thinking about using stitch markers at the ends of my rows just to make sure I am starting new rows in the proper place.

 

I don't think I'll start over, but look back at this blanket as a lesson learned, and see it as something funny to laugh with my daughter about in the future lol.

 

Thanks so much again, everyone.

[sherryzzz]

You could continue making the blanket, counting and keeping the rows even until you get to the other side and then increase stitches on the ends of the rows until you get to the same width on the other end - and then tell people you planned it that way!