Expert: Marla - 7/14/2010

Question
I am crocheting a dishcloth and can't figure the instructions to 5th rnd:

* dc in each of next 5 sts.  Ch 2.  Miss next st.  1 dc in each of the next 5 sts.  3 dc in next st.  Ch 3.  ** 3 dc in next st.  Rep from * twice more, then from * to ** once more.

I don't understand the asterick instructions.

Please HELP

Thanks

Answer
Hi Bertha!
Thanks for asking.  Yes, asterisks can be confusing. What the “rep from * twice more means is that you start out with the first “*” and continue through the last “*” which is “**3dc in the next st. Rep from *” Then you repeat this two more times. Then “* to **” means you start out again with the first asterisk and continue through to “**”, which means you do not do that last “** 3 dc in next st”.

Now, here may be a typo in the pattern. Did the pattern start out with something like “ch 3 (counts as the first dc), 2 dc in the same st”? The pattern seems to make more sense this way. Maybe this is what may have confused you.

A helpful hint even though you didn’t ask for it and maybe you already do this too. Sometimes patterns (especially doilies) can be crammed together so much the pattern is hard to follow and it is easy to get discouraged. When this happens I copy over the pattern on a piece of paper usually step by step in a say that is easy to follow. I usually do this one round at a time when doing doilies. Then when I finally finish the round I copy over the next round. It takes a little bit of time to do, but save a headache of having to unravel because I lost my place.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you need further clarification or have any more questions.

Marla