just started amigurumi...struggling with stitch counts...

[EdwiniasRevenge]

Background.

My mum taught me to crochet a granny square when I was a teen.

I recently picked up a crochet magazine and used it to teachme to crochet some cute amigurumi critters.

They come out ok...but I dont seem to be able to count the stitches correctly when working in a spiral. I am marking what I think is tthe first stitch (the stitch immediately adjacebt to the hook...not the loop on the hook. Is this right.

It seems to be a paricular problem when I am decreasing....I always seem to come up short...

At the moment I am just fudging it and adjustkng best I can...but where am I consistently losing stitxhes.

If I do a slip stitch at the end of each round (making it a circle not a spiral) and then add a turning chain I seem all right....but assumed I didnt need a turning chain for the spural amigurumi. ..is tgat where im going wrong?

Are you using stitch markers?

Im using a bit of contrasting thread as a marker.

Appologise for all the typos. My phone wont autocorrect an op...and I have a hideous head cold so was very sloppy with my typing.

To be honest those amigurumi can be incredibly difficult to get right. Granny squares are a lot simpler in my experience.

The pattern itself should tell you where to place the stitch in relation to the first stitch, and where to add a slip stitch.

I am currently crocheting an egg ( for easter!) and for each row, I have to count and double count the number of stitches I have because is is so easy to lose count.

Thing is I am not 100% sure im marking the right stitch.

To start with I just thought I was miscounting. But I consistently come up one stitch shorter than expected.

Am I right that I dont need a turning chain for a spiral amigurumi?

When making a spiral, you don't usually change directions, so I don't see why you would need a turning stitch.

Hmm...neither did I which is why I wasn't doing one....

Im going to start a new little character today so will see how this one goes....

I'm sure I used to get this... but I can't remember where I was going wrong. TBH, they all came out looking right at the end anyway!

I think it is miscounting in a way - something to do with not counting the marked stitch in the right round. The last stitch of the round should end up in your marked stitch I think.

Oooo...I was assuming the first stitch in the next round should be in the marked stitch. ..which would make sense with me thinking I am 1 short. I had been kind of trying to compensate and adding or not reducing by as many stitches. ..

As you say it all looks fine, some of the little legs (only 3 rounds) look a bit skew wiff but thought that was me being a novice...I think im too much of a perfectionist to get back to my marker right.

I am pretty sure that's the mistake I was making. It would explain why you are always one short. I can't think of any other reason! If you think about it, the last loop you have on your hook at the end of a round belongs to the last stitch of that round - this is the one I put the marker in and thus it needs a stitch in the top during the next round.

IIRC, it was like a little lightbulb moment when I realised what I was doing wrong.

I didnt think you count the loop on the hook as a stitch in crochet....ive been marking the stitch adjacent to my hook...

In fact I am effectively marking the loop on thw hook if I think about it.

I am doing the stitch in the marked stitch....which I count as stitch 1....then I mark that stitch as the new #1(so that would have been the loop at the end of the row...so my number 1s all end up on top of each other.....

But now my head hurts....and im not sure where my rows start and finish :s

Way I do it, is to add a stitch marker to the very FIRST stitch of the new row. When I complete the round and have done the very last stitch (and the marker is next) I count the stitches. So marked stitch is 1, and then all the way round. Always worked for me and if my stitch counts have been wrong its always because I've added an extra stitch when increasing, or an extra decrease somewhere.

Difficult to explain isn't it! Hopefully this makes some sense....

So I might crochet 5sc in magic ring then start my second row by sc into the very first sc of my round. I then add my marker to that sc and continue round with another 4sc. Including the marked stitch, i'll have 5sc. I then take the marker out, do another sc and then add the marker to that stitch and continue.

Not sure if that's make it easier or harder to understand

I didnt think you count the loop on the hook as a stitch in crochet

But it's the end of the stitch you just made. I think. My head hurts too!

The only reason I said that is because I have recently started a bit of tunisian crochet too....and I thought I read somewhere something along the lines of

'In tunisian crochet you do count to loop on the hook as a stitch, unlike regilar crochet'.

But I'm confused...im just going to try and go with the flow on my next one...

Well...ive been going into my marked stitch as the last stitch on each round...instead of the first and so far I seem to be keeping the right number of stitches :)

Yay!

I think it's because you are crocheting in a continuous spiral. When you are crocheting in rounds, that last loop finishes the round and you pretty much ignore it - it either joins up the row if you are crocheting in the round or gets lost in the turning chain.