Saturday, January 8, 2022

Crochet tip: How to Make Your Foundation and Work Even

 
Maybe you've noticed that when working on a project (a scarf, blanket, etc). the foundation chain makes the work narrower at the bottom and the following rows just get bigger at the sides and center. 
The trick to make it even is quite simple: Use one hook size bigger for the foundation chain.  
If your project requires - let's say - a 4mm hook, make the foundation chain with a 5mm hook and then switch to 4 mm in the first row. The work will be perfectly aligned. 
 

For the mustard yarn above, the first (top) sample is made with a 4 mm hook for both foundation and row 1, while for the sample below it, I used a bigger hook (5 mm ) for the foundation and then the required hook (4 mm) for row 1. I made dc stitches.

With the pink yarn I applied the same tip with sc stitches and the difference is quite striking. The top part tends to make a kind of an arch over the foundation. The first sample is made with just a 3 mm hook, while for the one below it, I used a 4 mm hook for the foundation and switched to a 3 mm hook for row1.


Do you do this with your foundations? Any tips you could share?

7 comments:

Alhana said...

Although I use this tip for knitting cast-on, it never crossed my mind it would also work with crochet! Thank you very much for opening my eyes once again. :-)

Maya Kuzman said...

You are welcome, Alhana! I never did that with my knitting!!! Grandma missed teaching me that :0

Julie's Creative Lifestyle said...

Thanks for sharing this helpful tip with making the crochet foundation Maya.

Marie-Interior Frugalista said...

THIS IS AWESOME, thank you for the fantastic tip! I had no idea about this and I've been crocheting for 40+ years. And yes, my work always goes wonky like your examples.

Maya Kuzman said...

Thank you Marie and you are welcome! I hope this helps! :)

Ljudmila said...

Добрый день. Спасибо большое за совет. Теперь всегда буду так делать. Когда узнала об этом, теперь кажется, что это так просто и естественно. :-)

Maya Kuzman said...

Good day, Ljudmila and thank you for the lovely comment. I hope this is useful :)