New to knitting & crochet - afghan question

chie96 · 11-12-2007, 07:57 PM

Good evening! I am a new knitter, and planned to knit my husband an afghan for Christmas. I found this one and thought it would be great for him.
Then I heard that crochet is much faster for afghans, and I am quickly running out of time. So I found this pattern and fell in love with it! All I can do is a chain stitch and a single crochet, but think I can figure the rest out as I go along.
But...I made my 67 chain stitches in what I thought was a loose stitch, but the chain is only about 24" long. I am assuming that it should be more like 45", since that is one of the dimensions of the blanket. Is this a correct assumption? If so, I guess I go back and make my chain really loose???
Any help would be appreciated!

cftwo · 11-13-2007, 01:24 AM

Do you have the right size hook?? By guage, if you're using a size K crochet hook, you're about the right size (10 stitches to 4" equals about 60 stitches for 24"). But, the pattern calls for a size Q crochet hook, which is really fat. Also note that you use 3 strands of yarn together for this pattern. If you know chain and single crochet, you should be OK with this pattern, as the only new stitch here is a double crochet (wrap yarn around hook, put in chain/stitch and pull up another loop. Yarn over and pull through 2 loops, yarn over and pull through 2 more loops. - see http://www.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/faq...arn&faqKey=115 for pictures)

chie96 · 11-13-2007, 01:30 AM

Yes, I bought a sz. Q tonight. It is huge! I did use 3 strands held together. After I posted I went back and figured I'd better make a gauge swatch, but I got very confused with the v-stitch and am about to give up and just knit the 1st one I found.

JIC - was I right to assume that the 67 sts should equal about 45"? Thanks so much!

cftwo · 11-13-2007, 03:41 PM

Your chain should be a lot closer to 45" than to 24". I've found, though, that the exact length of the chain doesn't quite reflect the final size. You need to do a few rows first. Try a looser chain and see if you're closer.

The V-stitch isn't so bad. You basically do 2 stitches (2 double crochet with a chain in between) in one chain, skip 2 chains, and do 2 stitches (2 double crochet with a chain in between) in the next chain stitch. (If you have an extra stitch at the end of the row, don't worry about it, no one will notice.) In your next row, you do your 2-double-crochet-with-a-chain-in-between in the chain-one space of the part I've marked in blue above. You don't have to worry about skipping chains in this row - just focus on those chain-one spaces. Does that help??

chie96 · 11-13-2007, 05:07 PM

TY again! I think crochet looks very cool. I decided not to try and learn it now, though. I just learned to knit in mid-Sept. and will wait until I have that down a bit better before I crochet. I definitely want to do both, however!