crochet pattern confusion

[anyothergirl]

Someone out there, help me make sense of this... I am working on adding trim to the bottom of a cardigan. The trim looks stretchy and ribbed (vertical ribs) in the picture and this would make sense to create shape at the bottom of the piece. This is created by crocheting a row with alternating dc and fpdc then the next row alternating dc and bpdc. This continues and should create the effect of a stretchy rib. Mine does not. I have no idea why but it just looks like lumpy dc, no nice lines. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong? I know this probably isn't enough info for you to diagnose me but I can't get a picture uploaded

how many rows have you done? The first row never looks particularly good I don't think. Are you doing the bpdc round the fpdc from the previous row? Or you could try every row fpdc, bpdc, fpdc, bpdc which would make the rib look more . . . ribbed, sorry, couldn't think of a better word

defined! That's the word I was looking for

I've recently been doing FPDC and I think it makes a difference whether you go round the "loose" part of the post or round the post right at the top where it attaches at the top and where you kind of have to go through a stitch. Round the loose part of the post looks best.