Counting stitches and using stitch markers

What a stitch looks like

Look at the top edge of your work. Every stitch, whatever its height, ends in a V lying on its side: two loops, front and back, side by side. Count the Vs and you have counted the stitches. The loop on your hook is not a stitch. The turning chain is a stitch only if the pattern says it counts. On the first row after a foundation chain, the chains you skipped are not stitches either.

For tall stitches you can also count the posts, the vertical bars below the Vs, which are easier to see from the front of double crochet fabric. In single crochet the posts are short and the Vs are the reliable thing to count.

Counting a row

Counting rows and rounds

Rows of single crochet are hard to tell apart; count the pairs of horizontal bars on the back, each pair is one row, or use a row counter. Rows of double crochet are easy: each row is one line of posts. In the round, count the rounds outward from the center by the rings of Vs. For long stretches of plain rows, a marker every ten rows on the edge means you only ever count ten.

Stitch markers

A stitch marker is anything that clips into a stitch: a locking marker that looks like a small plastic safety pin, a bobby pin, a paper clip, a loop of contrasting yarn. Locking markers are best because they close and do not fall out. Split ring markers are fine for stitches that stay still. Buy the cheap ones in a big bag; you will want a lot.

• First stitch of a round: the essential one. Move it up every round in a spiral, and you always know where the round ends.
• The stitch that has to be found later: the corner of a square, the center of a shawl, the underarm of a sweater. Mark it when you make it.
• Increase points: in a hat or a circle, a marker at each increase shows if you have drifted.
• Every 20 chains on a long foundation, so a miscount costs 20 not 200.
• Row ends on a long piece, every 10 rows, so measuring length is a glance.
• Live loop: when you put a project down, clip a marker through the working loop so it cannot pull out.

When the count is wrong

One stitch short on a row: you probably skipped the first stitch after turning, or missed the last one into the turning chain. One extra: you worked into the turning chain when it did not count, or put two in the first stitch. In a spiral round, one short is almost always a missed increase; find where the gap between increases is one stitch too long. Two or more off usually means a whole repeat was skipped or duplicated. Ripping back one row to fix a count is worth it; the error compounds otherwise, and shaping built on a wrong count never comes right.

Tools that help

A row counter, mechanical or an app, that you click at the end of each row. A sticky note or a magnet board that moves down the printed pattern line by line. A pencil to tick off repeats. None of these is essential; a marker in the first stitch and a habit of counting at the end of shaping rows will get you through almost anything, including the Meadow Stripe Blanket, whose only real hazard is losing a stitch at the edge over 200 rows. Read fixing common mistakes for what to do when the count reveals one.