Help!!!!

[NannaD]

I am starting a mermaid tail throw. the pattern reads: Chain 17. Row 1: (right side) Sc in 2nd ch from hook; *skip 4ch, Shell in next ch (shell is 8 dc)skip next 4, sc in next ch; r e[ from * across, turn. (17 Shells) I chained the 17 and did exactly what it said and I only have 2 sets of 8 (2 shells) not 17. What am I doing wrong?

[Jean Marie]

You chain 17 and end with 17 shells. Each shell is in one chain. That's 8 dc in one chain. I figure that you need 10 chains for 1 shell. That's 170 chains but your 1st shell is in the 7th chain so that would leave you with 3 extra chains.

If you chain 170 and put your 1st shell in the 7th chain and then your next shells is every 10th chain/stitch. After you have all 17 shells you will have 3 chains left over. Instead of 170 chains, maybe it's supposed to be 167 chains.

[NannaD]

The pattern only calls for 17 chains. I knew there had to be more than that but 17 is no where near 170. I will try that see what happens. Thank you Jean Marie for helping me. I knew 17 was wrong, but didn't know what was right. Thank you again.

[NannaD]

Jean Marie, I just got an email from Mary Maxim and the pattern should read chain 172, no 17. You were right! You're are awesome. Thank you so much for your help.

[Jean Marie]

Hi NannaD,
No, I wasn't exactly right but even with 170 chains I figured you would have 3 chains left over - so with 172 chains you would have 5 chains left over.
Jean Marie
p.s. 3 chains left over might be your first double crochet but 5 chains left over?

[MeToo!]

I guess we all have stories of bad pattern writing. In your case, it was a typo, not an overall bad set of instructions.

I am making an old fashioned hippie style vest, the kind the girls crocheted and wore in the late 60s & early 70s. I picked any old free pattern off the internet, assuming they would all know what they are doing, and started. Everything OK except for some unusual terminology that left me scratching my head.

Then it came time to decrease for the V-neck. Hoooo-boy. If you are decreasing something real simple, that is one thing, but that was not the case here, yet there were no explicit instructions, as one would expect to find in an "Easy" project. The instrs. just said "Decrease". Oh, really...

Thank heaven I have the Readers Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, publ. in 1979, which I never looked at much in the past. They explain how to decrease several stitches at the end of a row without an abrupt change in stitch heights. Normally, in a pattern marked "Easy", they tell you precisely what to do, that is, "Leave unworked the number of stitches to be decreased, work 1 slip stitch at end of row, chain 1 and turn. Skip the slip stitch, work 1 single crochet in the next stitch, then continue in pattern."

Thank you, Readers Digest. Anyone else here have that book?