Help a newb crochet longies!

[Adasmommy]

Okay, I started learning to crochet TODAY. Can we say beginner? I'm watching videos on nextstitch and I also have an encyclopedia of stitches that covers crochet as well as other stitches.

I found a free longies pattern, and want to know if you think it is doable for a newbie, and if it looks like a good one. Or is it better to buy a pattern?
Here's the one I found: http://withatangledskein.blogspot.co...het-pants.html

I started making this, with cheapo acrylic yarn, so it's totally a prototype. I have a translation of abbreviations but am still not sure I follow the lingo.

For example: Row 1 CH 2 (count as first DC) DC in each SC around , join with a SLST in the top of the CH 2

Does this just mean that after I do the first loop of chain, I go around and double crochet all around? Does Row 1 refer to my initial chain, or to this new DC row? What is CH2? What does count as first DC mean? What does DC in each SC mean?

LOL--maybe I'm more lost than I realized before I started to type it out. I'm working on the assumption that CH is chain, DC is double crochet, SC is single crochet, and SLST is slipstitch.

MIL can help teach me to crochet, but she's not here right now, and I was hoping to go forward with the learning without her!

[flapjack]

That's not the start of the pattern, right, and you already have a circle of stitches worked in single crochet? If not, it's going to be easiest if you type up the actual pattern and post a picture of what you have got

The ch2 is known as a turning chain. Double crochet is taller than single, so it's a way of making sure that your stitches are all the same length and you haven't got a fugly diagonal line in there. Then yes, dc into all of the single crochet stitches and join at the end of the row. For stitch count, you consider the turning chain to be a single stitch- so if you had 20sc at the start of the round, you'd have 19 dc, the turning chain and the slip stitch at the end.

[notjustmamie]

Originally Posted by Adasmommy

For example: Row 1 CH 2 (count as first DC) DC in each SC around , join with a SLST in the top of the CH 2

Does this just mean that after I do the first loop of chain, I go around and double crochet all around? Does Row 1 refer to my initial chain, or to this new DC row? What is CH2? What does count as first DC mean? What does DC in each SC mean?

Your assumptions on the sc, dc, ch, and slst are all correct. The first chain you did is the foundation and does not count as row 1. Row 1 is the first set of dcs you work into the foundation chain, after you have joined it into a ring.

As PP mentioned the first ch2 instruction is a "turning ch" and its purpose is to get your yarn to the top of the stitches as dcs form down from the top. After you have made the rest of the dcs around, you count them (that's what the numbers at the end of each row are, the number of stitches in that row) and the ch2 you did will count as one dc.

"DC in ea SC" looks like it's actually a slight error in the pattern. What it seems like you are to do is make one dc in each of the foundation chain stitches. If you are making the smallest size, you ch 56 for your foundation, then slst to make a ring. In row 1, you would ch2, then make 55 dcs around in each of the ch stitches in the foundation row, for a total of 56 dcs in row 1.

Does that make more sense or less??

[Adasmommy]

That helps ALOT and I am so proud of myself for understanding what you are talking about after just one day of learning!

I didn't realize that CH2 was a specific stitch that I need to go look up--so that fuddled me up.

It also helps to know that "each SC" should refer to the chain, not SCs, although that's what I assumed it meant. Now I know that properly it should be written slightly differently and that's nice for clarity.

And I am really glad to know that the foundation does not count as Row 1.

It is much simpler now that you've explained some fundamentals--thank you so much!

It looks like I'll be writing for more help when I got to Row 4 :

[notjustmamie]

Originally Posted by Adasmommy

I didn't realize that CH2 was a specific stitch that I need to go look up--so that fuddled me up.

Weeeell, it's not exactly a specific stitch. It does simply mean "chain two" as the directions would indicate. Adding a chain stitch (or several) at the beginning of a row--especially if you are instructed to count them as one of whatever stitch is used in the rest of the row--is referred to as a "turning chain".