Turn the fabric. Get straight edges

Turn the fabric. Get straight edges

Beginning of a new row

You may have noticed that we knit from right to left. So what happens when we finish knitting a row or string of stitches and reach the end of the work?

In order to knit a new row and for our work to grow upwards, we must take two steps:

1 - Make the chain stitches (if applicable) that correspond to the height of the stitch of the new row to begin.

2 - Turn the work, rotating in the crocheted stitch.

We will now have the fabric to the left of the stitch tied to the needle, so we can begin to knit again from right to left.

The last stitch of our previous row is now the first stitch of our new row.

At what point do we start knitting?

After turning the work, we will start knitting in the first stitch of the previous round.

From a height of 3 chains (double crochet), the chains of height count as the first stitch, so after picking up the yarn, we will insert the hook into the second stitch of the row:

Getting straight edges

A common concern when we start crocheting is that the edges of our work are not straight. It is common for fabrics to start taking on strange shapes at the edges. Therefore, we are going to review what to do to achieve straight edges in crochet.

First of all, count your stitches . If you are just starting out with knitting, it is very likely that you will not be able to tell which stitch is your last stitch, and in some rows you will end up with too few stitches or too many stitches. This will result in your work having uneven edges.

On the other hand, when we make stitches with a certain height (starting from a high stitch), I advise you to:

1. At the end of a row, when you have made your last stitch…
2. Pick up some yarn and insert your needle into the last chain stitch of the previous row.
3. Finish the stitch (in this example, double crochet).
4. We knit 3 chains to rise (or the ones that correspond to another stitch) and turn the work.
5. We knit the first double crochet in the second stitch of the previous row.
6. We repeat the same steps in each row.

Avoid side gaps

You may have noticed that by following the “rules of the game” for knitting the high stitch (turning the fabric, skipping the first stitch…), some hateful little holes form on the sides of the work that, I don’t know about you, but at least they worry me…

One trick to minimize the size of those gaps is to “cheat”:

1. When starting the round, make one chain less in height (for example, for the double crochet, instead of making 3 chains in height, I make 2).
2. Knit in the first stitch (do not skip it)
3. This means that:
   • We DO NOT count the chain stitches as a stitch. Our first stitch is our first stitch.
   • When finishing the rounds, we do not knit in the second chain stitch of the previous round. Our last stitch goes in the last stitch of the previous round.

>GO TO THE ONLINE COURSE TO LEARN HOW TO CROCHET