I have never liked the appearance of beginning a row by chaining 2, 3, 4 etc. as it tends to leave a gap and the stitch does not blend well with the others in the row. Many years ago (I won't say how many! *eek*)I came up with the following.
If the beginning of a row calls for a ch 3 to represent a dc, instead of doing a ch 3 I sc in the first stitch, sc in the sc then continue on. If the patten calls for a ch 4 to represent a tr, I 'stack' 3 sc's. This blends in much better with the pattern stitches and also allows for much easier and uniform stitching when sewing pieces together or doing an edging.
Note: If for example a pattern calls for a ch 5 at the beginning of a row to be counted as a dc + ch 2 you would sc in the first stitch, sc in sc then ch2.
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