Narrowing & Widening
When your crochet starts getting narrower or wider, it means that you are either losing or adding stitches throughout the row. One of the most important things to learn after the stitches, is how to keep count. Crochet is all just a fun game of “did I put the right amount of stitches in this row” until you have something beautiful made. With more experience and exposure to counting your stitches, you won't have to do it nearly as much, but miscounting stitches is one of the first few issues new crocheters face. Here, we’ll show you how to tell when you're adding or losing stitches and how to fix the issue. Note: If your edges are Convex & Concave and you know you have the correct stitch count throughout, check out that link for a solution.
This page is for unintentional adding and losing of stitches. Increases and decreases are the proper terms for adding and losing stitches. The only difference between the 2 is that increasing and decreasing is used intentionally to get a desired effect.
Narrowing
When your rows are narrowing, you are dropping (dropping) stitches. In this example, I skipped the first and last stitches of every row, dropping 2 stitches per row. It's most common for people to drop stitches at the beginning and end of the row, but you can absolutely drop stitches at any point throughout the row. No matter where the stitch is lost, you’ll end up with a shape similar to this.
Widening
When your rows are widening, you are adding stitches. In this example, I added an extra stitch into the first and last stitches of every row, adding 2 stitches per row. It’s most common for people to add stitches at the beginning and end of the row, but you can absolutely add stitches at any point throughout the row. No matter where the stitch is added, you’ll end up with a shape similar to this.
The easiest way to fix this issue is to count your stitches. Whether it be counting as you go or counting at the end of the row, you will have to keep count of your stitches. If you haven't realized yet, crochet is a whole lot of counting; and there are ongoing jokes through the crochet community about how tedious it is to keep count.
If you have trouble differentiating your stitches, one thing to do is get a stitch marker in either every stitch, or the first and last stitches. Stitch markers can be anything from plastic “stitch markers” you can get from the store, custom made “stitch markers” with charms, paper clips (my personal favorite), or even scraps of yarn. If it can be put in the stitch as a marker, it’s a stitch marker.
When you’re adding or dropping stitches randomly throughout your row, try having a stitch marker in every stitch or keep count (or both) as you go. When you’re dropping or adding stitches into the first or last stitch, you’ll want to put stitch markers in those stitches and count your stitches at the end of your rows.
It's a little more time consuming and may seem like it's too much of a hassle, but with proper practice you’ll get to the point where you’re not relying on stitch markers. You’ll be able to see when you drop or add a stitch within the next row without constantly counting. Counting is still very important though and you’ll need to do this no matter what project you work on.
Keeping count of your stitches is just as important as learning the stitches themselves. dropping or adding a single stitch can lead to some projects completely failing and you needing to frog hours of work. Though something that catastrophic doesn't happen often, it’s very easy to have happen. Shawls that have repeating intricate patterns, C2C (corner-2-corner) blankets, lacework, amigurumi, and anything that is intermediate or advanced can have a misplaced stitch ruin the entire project.
This isn't meant to scare you, just to show you how important even one stitch can be. Normally, if you drop or add a stitch it's not completely detrimental and you can either frog the project to the mistake and fix it, or take the “lazy” option and add/remove a stitch on the row you’re working to even it out. If it's a project you're planning on selling, I’d strongly recommend fixing any mistakes. But if it's a leisure project or a gift that would be appreciated no matter the condition, you don’t have to worry all that much about it having a mistake or 2.
If you take anything from this though, please remember that keeping count is the second largest part of crochet (next to the stitches themselves).