understanding patter directions

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I haven't crocheted in several years and thought I'd try making a dish cloth. The pattern seemed simple enough however, at the end of the second row it says "drop MC" (I know what that means)"11 ch-1sps" (I have no idea what that means). Can someone explain it to me, please?????

Probably - you were doing something like sc, ch-1, skip next st, sc, ch-1, skip next st, ... ending with a sc and the instructions are telling you that you just made 11 ch-1 spaces.

Submitted by pauline3 on 30 December 2008 - 12:51am.

I don't think so. It says that at the end of the row where I drop the Main Color and switch to Contrasting Color. It says: "drop MC: 11 ch-1 sps." Then at the end of the row where I drop the Contrasting Color and go back to the Main Color, it says: "drop CC: 12 ch-1 sps".

Submitted by Glennice on 30 December 2008 - 6:10pm.

Hmm. Don't know then without seeing a whole lot more of the pattern. Is it somewhere online?

Submitted by pauline3 on 30 December 2008 - 11:22pm.

No, it's in a book. Last night I tried ingnoring that part of the directions and my row ends just fine. It really bugs me, though, that I don't know what it means!

Submitted by Glennice on 31 December 2008 - 9:34am.

Doesn't it mean that you'll have 11 ch 1 spaces? Then when you do the next row, you should have 12 ch 1 spaces if you added the CC.

I don't know, that's what I think it means.

Submitted by cathy24 on 5 August 2009 - 5:04pm.

I agree with Cathy, I think it is just giving you a total of spaces you should have at the end of each row.

Submitted by Hooks And Chains on 9 August 2009 - 8:17pm.

I was looking for the answer to this very same question when I found this website. So I signed up and started searching for the answer: 'what does; "SPS" mean'?

'Spaces' does make a lot of sence, at least in the pattern I have just started.

My main problem is that I have never crocheted anything from an English pattern and that is causing my problem.

But 'Spaces' for 'sps' sounds perfect so I'll go with that for now.

Thanks!!

Regards, Milli-Jo.
PS: Did you hug your dog today??

Submitted by Milli-Jo on 25 October 2009 - 8:47pm.

Hi! I hugged all three of my dogs today (and every day). Try to hug the kid too, but he's 17 and doesn't appreciate it. Sps does mean spaces. You may have an increase on the next row, and that's why you go from 11 to 12 spaces, or since usually the pattern reverses on the next row (sc, skip 1, ch 1) your # of sc decreased while your ch sps increased. Hope this helps. By the way, I've never made a dishcloth, but this is not the first time I've seen a question about dishcloths, or heard of problems with dishcloths -- Maybe it's dishcloths that have a problem, not the person trying to make them. Also remember that English patterns use different words for the stitches than American patterns. I think that what we call a sl st, they call a single, and what we call a single, they call a plain stitch or a double, so you might need a translation guide for that!

Submitted by Janine on 28 October 2009 - 10:25am.

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