Help with stitch instructions?

[Stacey]

I'm just starting this Polish star potholder pattern that I printed off the internet a year or more ago. I think it was at freepatterns.com, but it doesn't seem to be there anymore and I couldn't find it by searching google, so I can't put up a link to it, unfortunately. (It says at the bottom of the pattern that it's from Annie's Favorite Crochet Magazine, August 2001, #112, pages 44-46.)

 

Anyway, can someone please please please tell me if I'm misreading this? Maybe I'm just missing something here, but they have instructions for this extended dc that's used all over the pattern, and I can't for the life of me figure out how this is different from regular dc. Here's what it says:

 

"For extended dc (edc), yo, insert hook in st, yo, pull through st, yo, pull through one lp on hook, (yo, pull through 2 loops on hook) 2 times."

 

Is it just me, or is that a plain old dc??? I'm so baffled here!

[Tiffany]

Stacey,

 

Instead of being like a typical dc, you yo and pull through one loop first and then the following yo/pull through 2 lps is like the typical dc. I hope this helps! I checked with Donna before answering. I'm so used to just doing a dc stitch that it took me a while to read over it and make sure it was different.

[Donna]

Oh, that's a pretty pattern! My sister made some last year. Here's the link. Polish Star Potholders

[Stacey]

Thanks for answering!

 

This is so weird -- this is actually how I've been doing dc ever since I learned. I searched around for some stitch instructions, and it sounds like everyone but me is doing it the way this page explains: www.craftown.com/crolesson.htm

where I'm doing it the way this page explains (though I think I got the instructions out of a reader's digest book on needlecrafts):

www.stitchguide.com/stitc...ochet.html

 

The first one has you yo, draw the through the stitch, yo, draw through 2 loops twice. Is that how you all do it?

 

The stitchguide.com one explains dc pretty much exactly this pattern here explains extended dc - and it's how I've been doing it, where you draw through 1 loop first and then through 2 loops twice (instead of just drawing through 2 loops twice).

 

I'm kinda surprised I've never had problems before since this is how I always do a regular dc??? :thinking1 :sherlock

 

Edited to add - Donna, I didn't see your post before I replied because I had the reply screen open for so long while I looked up stitch instructions Thanks for posting the link - I couldn't find it anywhere!

[Donna]

Hey, Stacey! ) I looked at all the links you gave. Hopefully this will clarify.

 

Regular double crochet:

1. Yarn over.

2. Insert hook in stitch and draw up a loop.

3. Yarn over and draw through two loops.

4. Yarn over and draw through two loops.

 

Extended double crochet (the one in the pattern you're working on):

1. Yarn over.

2. Insert hook in stitch and draw up a loop.

3. Yarn over and draw through one loop.

4. Yarn over and draw through two loops.

5. Yarn over and draw through two loops.

 

Long double crochet (the one described by stitchguide.com):

1. Yarn over.

2. Insert hook in stitch and draw up a long loop.

3. Yarn over and draw through two loops.

4. Yarn over and draw through two loops.

 

(So what's with the long loop in the long double crochet? The reason you are drawing up a long loop is because you are not inserting the hook into the next stitch, but into the row below. If you look at the stitchguide video, the person is working with a piece done in all single crochet. She inserts her hook not in the next single crochet, but into the single crochet in the row below. Then draws up a long loop to bring it up to the level of the row she's working on.)

 

Hope this helps! )

 

P.S. You're welcome for the link!

[Swayde]

Don't feel silly. I realized on round 29 of a 32 round Doily that I was doing my single crochets and double crochets wrong. I was doing them how that extended double crochet is desrcibed. The beginner book I bought is very misleading. It seemed like I was doing it right, but after more research I do realize it's wrong. The good news is that the doily still looks nice, I went ahead and finished it up staying consistantly wrong heh. I will post pics soon as I can get my brother to loan me his digital camera =)

 

Oh well...live and learn =)

[Stacey]

Thanks for posting the explanations, Donna ) How weird is it that I've been doing doubles wrong all this time (like 3 years now, I think)! I never imagined I was doing them wrong because everything always came out right

 

I was doing them how that extended double crochet is desrcibed.

Exactly - me too! I've been trying to find the book I learned out of to see if I read it wrong or what. I'm trying to get used to making them the right way now. It's almost like I have to make them the way I've been doing to get gauge right on a few things. I'm trying to teach myself to make them the right way and still have them come out tall enough.

 

Glad I'm not the only one who made the same mistake!

[Swayde]

The book I learned from still looks like you do an extra step. Based on the written instructions and the pictures, but everywhere else it is obvious that I was doing them wrong and now that I've been doing them correctly things seem to come out much better for me...like the coasters I made actually look like coasters and not hot pads

[Donna]

Barbara and Stacey, I would be curious to know what books you learned from. If you don't want to post them here, you can e-mail me ! donna at yarntomato.com

[Stacey]

I learned from an old Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework and a booklet called I Can't Believe I'm Crocheting. I found the booklet, and it looks like I didn't get the screwy instructions there, so I've been trying to find the Reader's Digest book to see if it was in there or if I'm just insane I can't find it anywhere though - need to check with my stepdaughter since I last saw it over the summer and it has a habit of disappearing when she wants to learn new embroidery stitches so it might have gone back to school with her this fall...