Counting Chains Without Losing Your Mind
Last lesson you made your slip knot and pulled your first chain or two. Today we're making a lot more of them, on purpose, and we're going to count them, and I'm going to tell you right now: you will lose count. Everybody does. That's what this whole lesson is about.
Why chains are worth practicing on their own
A chain looks like nothing. It's not a stitch anybody puts in a photo. But it's the foundation row for almost everything you'll ever make, and if your chain is sloppy or you miscount it, the whole project starts crooked. Better to get good at this now, with no pressure, than to fight it later while you're also trying to learn a new stitch.
So today's assignment is embarrassingly simple. You are going to chain to 20. Then you're going to pull it out and do it again. Several times.
The actual mechanics, one more time
Yarn over the hook, pull it through the loop that's already on your hook. That's one chain. Do it again. That's two. Keep going.
A few things to watch for as you go:
- Keep your tension even. Not tight, not loose, just consistent. If your chain looks like a strand of pearls with some fat and some skinny, that's a tension problem, and it fixes itself with reps, not worry.
- Don't chain around your thumb. New crocheters tend to grip the base of the chain too hard, right where the working loop is, and it strangles the stitch so the next one's hard to get into. Loosen up down there.
- Turn the chain as you go if you need to see the little V's. Each chain stitch has a bump on the front and a V shape you'll use later to find where to put your hook. You don't need to memorize that today. Just notice it's there.
How to count without losing your mind
Here's my method, and your mileage may vary: count out loud, or at least mouth the numbers. Silent counting in your head is where everybody loses the thread, especially in a room with other people talking, which — welcome to Relief Society, welcome to this class, welcome to your kitchen table with the TV on.
Count in chunks of five if twenty feels like a lot to hold in your head at once. Chain five, pause, look at it, chain five more. Four little groups of five is friendlier than one long string of twenty.
And if you lose count halfway through — you will — don't guess. Pull it all the way out and start over. I know that feels like a waste. It isn't. A guessed number is worse than a redo, because now you've built a project on a foundation you're not sure about, and you'll be wondering about it the whole time.
A story about why some of this just doesn't stick, and that's fine
I had a student a while back, Jasmine, who wanted to learn granny squares. Granny squares start with a chain worked into a ring, and there's counting and turning and chaining-three-to-count-as-a-stitch, and it is, honestly, a lot for a beginner. She came to two lessons and then quit, and I did not take it personally for one second. Granny squares are fussy. I don't blame anybody for deciding they're not worth the aggravation, especially if what you actually want is a plain washcloth or a simple scarf. Not every stitch pattern has to be your stitch pattern. Chains, though — chains you can't skip. Everything else is optional. This isn't.
A word on gauge, since we're on the subject of counting
You'll hear a lot of noise out there about gauge — meaning, does your stitch count match the pattern's exactly. For a washcloth, I don't care, and I'm not going to pretend I do. If your chain of 20 comes out a little wider or narrower than somebody else's chain of 20, fine. You'll get a bigger or smaller washcloth. Congratulations, you still have a washcloth. Save the gauge worrying for a sweater, years from now, if you ever get there.
What can actually go wrong here
Nothing dangerous in a chain — this is about the gentlest thing crochet asks of you. The only real hazard is frustration, and maybe a sore hand if you're gripping too hard for too long. If your hand starts aching, put it down. Come back to it in ten minutes. This isn't a race and nobody's timing you.
Before next time
Practice chaining to 20 a handful of times this week, out loud counting if that helps, and don't feel bad about pulling out a bad one and starting over. That's not you failing at this. That's you learning to fix it, which is most of the skill.