Straight row edges and turning chains
Raise your hook to the right level…
First, you need some crochet to practise on. Start with a foundation row of dc stitches – you can have as many stitches as you like, but if you’re using last issue’s practice piece, then you’ll have 10 dc.
Step 1 When you reach the end of a row of stitches, the standard instruction for flat fabrics is to turn (working in the round is a bit different – we’ll cover that in a future workshop). So if you’re right-handed, the hook and working loop will then be at the far right, like this. If you’re left-handed, the hook will be on the far left.
Step 2 For dc rows, the next standard instruction is ‘ch1’, so make one chain. This is the turning chain (t-ch), which has a vital role in making sure your rows are neat and straight. The t-ch is a way of raising the hook up to the right height required for the height of stitches you’re going to make. Double crochet is the smallest standard stitch so we only need to make one chain. For a taller stitch like treble crochet, we’d have to make three chains to get up to the right height.
Step 3 Once you’ve made the t-ch, you can work dc stitches as explained to the right. Here’s what your finished row of dc stitches will look like – each dc is neatly at the same height, from the first stitch to the last, and that’s thanks to the t-ch.
Step 4 If you don’t work the t-ch (it’s easy to forget!), the first dc is much harder to work and the finished row will look more like this – that first dc is too low, which is creating a slope at the start of the row. It doesn’t look like much now, but if you repeated this error on every row, it soon adds up to a big problem.