Understanding crochet lengths in parentheses?
Can someone explain how one length in my pattern says (23), and the next row says (27)?
The instructions are:
Ch 24.
Row 1: Beginning in 2nd ch from hook, sc2tog in next 2 ch, ch 1; repeat from *, end in last ch, turn …(which has not added up to 23 stitches).
Row 2: Ch 1, (sc2tog, ch 1) across to last 4 sts, (sc, ch 1) in next 3 sts, sc in last stitch (27).
The numbers aren’t adding up, or I’m doing something wrong. Maybe someone can chime in on this? Thanks so much.
The pattern is “sc2tog, ch 1.” While the sc2tog decreases one st, the ch 1 replaces it, so you neither gain nor lose stitches.
In Row 1, you ch 24. The first ch is used for turning, so you work 23 of those chains for stitches. You work sc2tog, ch 1 over the second and third chs–2 sts replace 2 chs. Next, you work sc2tog, ch 1 over the fourth and fifth chs and continue across the row with the pattern st. At the end of the row is a single ch, so sc in it. You will have 23 sts if you neither skipped any chs from the foundation chain nor used a foundation ch twice.
In Row 2, you ch 1 to start, then work sc2tog, ch1 in the next two stitches. Use the sc from the previous row for the first loop and the ch-space for the second loop of the first sc2tog st. As you work across the row, the first loop will always be in the sc2tog st from the previous row and the 2nd loop will always be in the ch-1 sp–the exception is when you are working over increased stitches. When you are past the increases, though, the pattern goes back to “normal.”
At the end of Row 2, you are instructed to increase 3 sts, yet the stitch count shows an increase of 4 sts (to 27). Is there an error here?
Looking at the directions for Row 3, Row 4, and Row 5, it does appear that there is an error in Row 2. Where Row 2 says that you end with 4 sts, you don’t, you end with 3. You had 23 sts from Row 1 and worked them in pairs, thus 20 sts were worked and 3 are left. The sc, ch, sc, ch, sc sequence will add 2 sts to that row for a total of 25.
In Row 4, you will increase 1 st for a count of 26 (not the 31 sts indicated).
In Row 5, you will increase 2 sts for a count of 28 (not the 32 sts indicated).
Row 6 says to work in the pattern st, which does not provide increases unless they are specified. Yet it shows a 1-stitch increase (to 33 sts).
It definitely appears to me that there is an error, and if you tried following those directions, you would not get the results the directions say you will get. You do start with ch 24 to provide 23 sts and and you do end up on Row 16 with 45 stitches. Your goal is to increase 22 stitches at the front opening from Row 1 to Row 16. If you can figure out the increase pattern, just go with the increase pattern and ignore the errors for those 16 rows.
You may want to run your own spreadsheet calculation on it. Here’s the one I ran: Increase 2 sts at the front edge on the even-numbered rows by doing the sc-ch-sc-ch-sc stitch pattern over the last 3 stitches in the row. Increase 1 st at the front edge on the odd-numbered rows by doing the sc-ch-sc in the first st in the row. On row 16, though, you will need to increase only 1 stitch at the end of the row.
Notes:
When you are doing the pattern st (sc2tog, ch1), the first loop is always worked in the sc2tog st from the previous row and the second loop is always in the ch st from the previous row.
Coats & Clark has a “corrections” page, but that cardigan isn’t on it. Perhaps you want to get in touch with the company through their web page to see if anyone else has reported the error.
Amigurumi – How to Decrease – sc2tog
