Use the Chainless Starting Stitches to Give Your Crochet a Perfectly Straight Edge!

Are the edges of your crochet wavy?  Are there gaps from turning chains along the sides?  Fix that problem NOW with a Chainless Starting Stitch!

When working back and forth in rows, have you ever had one of these annoying little predicaments?

1. If you do not count the turning chain as a stitch, the edges of your piece are wavy.  The turning chains “bubble” out at the beginning of every other row. OR…
2. If you do count the turning chain as a stitch, the edges of your piece have little gaps at the beginning of every other row.  This happens because a turning chain is not the same shape or thickness as a regular stitch.

While these things aren’t as noticeable with shorter stitches, they can be quite obvious when using taller stitches and longer turning chains.

Well, both of these issues can be avoided.

You see, these little ugly things happen because of the turning chains themselves.  The purpose of the turning chain is to get your hook up to the correct height to begin the row you’re about to work.  The problem is that a turning chain is not the same shape as a regular stitch.  Because the rest of the stitches are straighter and thicker than a turning chain, that turning chain will not blend in with the rest of the work.  It will often bend outward and appear thinner than the other stitches.

So to correct those problems, we eliminate the turning chains altogether.

But how do you get your hook up to the correct height to begin the row?  Well, this is where the Chainless Starting Stitches come in.  A Chainless Starting Stitch is a special stitch that replaces the turning chain, gets your hook up the the correct height, and looks just like a regular stitch.  It’s truly chain-less!

So how do these Chainless Starting Stitches work?  Luckily, they aren’t much harder to work than a regular stitch.  Watch the video below for a full, step-by-step tutorial, where I’ll show you how to work the Chainless Starting Double Crochet, the Chainless Starting Half-Double Crochet, and the Chainless Starting Single Crochet.

So, let’s say you want to use a Chainless Starting Stitch in a pattern, instead of the turning chain the pattern calls for.  You’ll likely be in one of two scenarios:

1.  The pattern does not count the turning chain as a stitch.  Pattern tells you to work the first stitch of the row in the same stitch the chain is coming from.  In this case, you’ll need to eliminate the turning chain completely.  Then, replace the first stitch of the row with the Chainless Starting Stitch.
2. The pattern does count the turning chain as a stitch.  Pattern tells you to work the first stitch of the row in the next stitch after the one the chain is coming from.  In this case, you’ll just replace the turning chain with the Chainless Starting Stitch.

Wanna use this trick in all your projects? 

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Have you tried the Chainless Starting Stitches yet?

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