Hi! I’m working on a sweater and wanted some opinions on a problem I ran into. I finished both the front and back panel, made up of 30 double crochets and 30 single crochets. The front panel does have a slightly different design with chains added to the top of some double crochets, but it’s worked to where it wouldn’t change the size of the panel. With that being said, my back panel ended up a little longer, and I’m assuming it’s because of my stitch size. Is that likely the case? I’ve crocheted several other projects before and stitch consistency has never been a problem, but this is likely my most ambitious project yet.
In terms of fixing this, should I take off a row or two from the back panel so each panel is equal in length? At the moment I’m leaning towards keeping them as is to keep the amount of stitches the same, but I’m not sure how that will matter in the long run since I’m still a fairly new crocheter.
Stitch tension can vary from one sitting to another. Did you double check that there are no stitches missing or extra stitches? I mean, meticulously, when you’re not in panic mode.
This is why gauge is important.
Your panels are two different stitch patterns and are obviously two different gauges. Since there is no real shaping to this anyway, you can remove a few rows from the longer piece as long as you are happy with it otherwise
Blocking will make it smoother ,or crisper, and it will uncrumple lace. It will not fix the fact that those are two different gauges causing a SIGNIFICANT size difference. Blocking is not a permanent correction and it will reverse itself in the process of wearing. So that beautiful sweater will distort back to its original form over the course of the day. It’s a much better practice to just correct it now.
Now, I know gauge swatches are annoying, but since I started making wearables, they have been a life saver! Also, always make sure to take note of your hook size, there are even stitch markers with numbers on them for that purpose, can be useful
