The promise, and what it buys you
All 5,734 rounds in this library have been through a machine that takes each round's count, works out what the written instruction consumes and produces, and refuses the pattern unless the two agree with the round before it. Nobody has crocheted these patterns, and that is worth knowing — but it is not the thing in question when your number and the bracket differ. The arithmetic is, and the arithmetic has been checked.
So the useful consequence is narrow and it is the whole point: a mismatch is a place in your work, not a verdict on you. Somewhere in that last round, one stitch went in where two should have, or two where one should. It is one round of work and it is findable.
One under, one over
Nearly every mismatch of one or two is one of four things, and each has a different look in the fabric.
| You have | What happened | How to see it |
|---|---|---|
| one short | A missed increase. | You worked a plain stitch where the round wanted two into one. One gap between increases is wider than the others by the length of the repeat. |
| one short | A skipped stitch. | The hook went past a stitch without working into it — most often the last stitch before the marker, which sits tight against the round below. There is a small slanted hole where it should be. |
| one over | An increase you did not mean. | Two stitches went into one place. Two stitches lean out of the same hole and the fabric bulges very slightly there. |
| one over | The marker moved and the round did not. | In a spiral there is no seam, so the first stitch of the round is wherever the marker says. If it slipped forward one, the round is one stitch long every time round from then on. |
Two over or two short in one round is usually one of these twice, not something new. Three or more, and it is worth checking the round below before going any further.
Where the increases fall
An increase round spreads its increases evenly, and evenly is a number you can work out. If the round below had P stitches and this round gains D, there is an increase every P ÷ D stitches of the round below. That is what (2 sc, inc) x6 is saying: two plain, then two into one, six times over.
Which is why a missed increase is findable without unpicking anything. All the gaps should be the same length. Run a finger round and one of them is not.
| The round | Ends on | Gains | So an increase every |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rnd 2: inc x6 | [12] | 6 | every stitch of the round below |
| Rnd 3: (sc, inc) x6 | [18] | 6 | 2 stitches of the round below |
| Rnd 4: (2 sc, inc) x6 | [24] | 6 | 3 stitches of the round below |
| Rnd 5: (3 sc, inc) x6 | [30] | 6 | 4 stitches of the round below |
| Rnd 6: (4 sc, inc) x6 | [36] | 6 | 5 stitches of the round below |
| Rnd 7: (5 sc, inc) x6 | [42] | 6 | 6 stitches of the round below |
The chart on each pattern page draws those positions rather than describing them, so the forks on a ring are evenly spaced for the same reason. Reading a stitch chart covers the drawing itself.
Count the increases, not the stitches
Counting 48 stitches on a curved piece under a lamp at ten at night is how a count goes wrong twice. Count the increases instead. A round of 48 that gained 6 has six of them, and six is a number the eye takes in without walking through it — three on the front, three on the back, or two groups of three if you turn the piece.
The increases are visible from the front: two stitches rising out of one stitch of the round below, a small V that the plain stitches beside them do not make. On a round that gains nothing there is nothing to count, which is the other half of the trick — on straight rounds, count the rounds and not the stitches.
Keeping your place
A spiral has no seam and no join, so nothing in the fabric says where a round begins. One marker in the first stitch of the current round, moved up each time you reach it, is what replaces that. It is not optional on a piece of more than about ten rounds: without it, the bracket count has nothing to be counted against.
On this site the pattern page keeps the round for you. The stepper remembers which piece and which round you were on, in this browser, so locking the phone and coming back an hour later leaves it open on the same line. It lives on your device and nothing about it is sent anywhere.
It stays on that device. If you would rather keep count in an app, there is a separate iPhone app with a row counter.
How far to frog
Back to the last round whose count you are sure of, and no further. If round 11 was 48 and you counted it, the fault is in round 12, so round 12 is what comes out. Pulling back five rounds because the piece feels wrong throws away four rounds of correct work and does not make the fifth easier to find.
Often nothing needs to come out at all. One stitch too many can be taken back in on the next round by working two together once; one too few can be put back by working an extra increase. On amigurumi at six stitches to the round, a single corrected stitch in the middle of a body will not show once it is stuffed. On a flat disc it will, because a flat disc is a shape held by exact arithmetic — there, pull back.
Before pulling anything, put a marker in the round you are going back to. Frogging past the place you meant to stop at is the second mistake and it is the expensive one.
When it still will not add up
If you have counted twice, the increases are evenly spaced, and the number still disagrees with the bracket, then the round itself may be wrong. A machine checked it, and a machine checks the counts against each other rather than against a hook.
The round number is what makes that checkable by somebody else. The report page sets out what to note down while the work is still in front of you, and where a report currently goes. What each check behind a pattern here proves, and what it cannot, is set out in full.