How to :: lose the fear of making long foundation chains

Is there anyone that doesn't dread making a really long foundation chain? It's just too easy to lose count and recounting is tiresome. Not to mention that it's very easy to miscount again!  Here are my tips for dealing with long foundation chains.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Get yourself some stitch markers. Cheap coloured ones like this are ideal.

Then mark the foundation chain at regular intervals. For instance, mark every 10 chains with a white marker, every 50th chain with a blue marker and every 100th chain with a red marker. 

So in the photo below the blue marker is placed at the 50th chain. I then removed the white markers from the 10th, 20th, etc chain and reused them to mark the 60th, 70th, 80th and 90th chains. The red marker is placed at the 100th chain. Easy, no?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Remember that it is better for your foundation chain to be too long rather than too short so, if you lose count, purposefully add more chains than you think you need. It is easier to remove any extra chains than it is to add new ones - you can simply undo the starting slip knot and unravel the chains you don't need.

The extra chains don't unravel as easily from the bottom end of the chain, but it is perfectly possible to undo them all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you do end up with too few chains it is possible to add more. Here's how.

You will need a second ball of yarn in the same colour as your original foundation chain. If you don't have a second ball you will need to use the other end of the ball you're working with. It's usually fairly easy to find the yarn end in the centre of the ball with a bit of fishing about!

When you get to the end of the foundation row secure your working stitch and turn the work upside down so that the chain is at the top and you are looking at the back of the work.  Insert your hook into the end chain and draw up a loop with the second ball of yarn.

Work the required number of chains.

Turn your work back over. You will see that you need to work into the back of these extra foundation chains.

I insert the hook under the top and back loops of the chain (to match the way I work into chains from the front).

There you go... obviously, I made the extra chains in a contrasting colour for clarity, but I reckon that if they were worked in the yellow you wouldn't be able to tell they'd been added afterwards (once the ends had been woven in at least).

It's your call as too how many missing chains are too many. If it were only a few I probably wouldn't bother doing this and fudge it instead.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, there you go. I hope this little how-to guide comes in handy to some of you.

Have a great rest of weekend and don't forget the clocks go back tonight if you're in the UK!


Edited to add :: yes, I do know there is such a thing as a chainless foundation row which, as the name suggests, does away with the foundation chain altogether, but I think that would need a blog post all of it's own which is why I didn't include it here.