Welcome to Lesson Two! In this lesson, I teach all the most basic crochet stitches and how and where to work them. Once you know the foundations and basic crochet stitches, you’re on your way to creating great things! Here’s the outline for this lesson:
- Crocheting into a chain
- Crocheting into the tops of stitches
- Slip Stitch (ss)
- Single crochet (sc)
- Half double crochet (hdc)
- Double crochet (dc)
- Crocheting into a magic ring
Let’s dive right in!
Crocheting into a chain
After Lesson One, you can now crochet yourself a chain! This is the foundation for a lot of crochet like blankets and scarves. So now I’m going to show how you work into a chain.
Lay your chain out horizontally with the hook end on the right. To crochet into a chain, you’ll start working into the tops of the chain and work from right to left.
It’s important to note that, as far as I know, you will never work into the last chain you crocheted, the chain closest to the hook. You will usually crochet into the second chain from the hook or perhaps the third or fourth, etc. depending on what kind of stitches you are doing. The pattern you’re following will usually let you know how many chains to skip.
Once you know which chain you’re starting with, for this example we’ll say it’s the second chain from the hook, you simply insert your hook into the chain making sure that only the top loop of the chain is on the hook. Once you know where to insert your hook, you can work any kind of crochet stitches into the chain.
You then work whatever stitches you’re using into the tops of each chain until you reach the end of it. That completes one row. To start a new row, simply chain and turn your work. For taller stitches, the pattern might tell you to chain more than one. If you need a refresher on how to chain, you can find it back on Lesson One.
After you’ve worked across the chain, added a chain, and turned your work, you’re ready to start crocheting into the tops of your stitches. This would also be a good place to tuck in and hide the little loose end from the beginning of your chain. I talk more about hiding loose ends in Lesson Three.
Crocheting into tops of stitches
Each of the basic crochet stitches I teach in this lesson has a different height. From shortest to tallest they are slip stitch, single crochet, half double crochet, and double crochet. Here’s a picture of rows worked with each of the stitches to demonstrate the height difference:
Regardless of height, however, the top of each looks the same. The top of each stitch is shaped like a ‘v’. Unless instructed otherwise by the pattern you’re following, you work into the top of the stitch by inserting your hook directly beneath the v making sure to go through both loops of the v.
There are situations in which you crochet into a different part of the stitch than the v, but I go into that in Lesson Four. For now, let’s learn all the basic crochet stitches!
Slip stitch (sl st)
To create a slip stitch
- Insert hook into the top of the stitches or chain you’re working into.
- Yarn over and pull through the top of the stitch or chain. This creates an extra loop on the hook.
- Pull the extra loop through the first loop on the hook. Boom. Slip stitch made.
Single crochet (sc)
To create a single crochet
- Insert hook into the top of the stitches or chain you’re working into.
- Yarn over and pull through the top of the stitch or chain. This creates an extra loop on the hook.
- Yarn over again and pull it through both loops already on the hook. You’ve got yourself a single crochet.
Half double crochet (hdc)
To create a half double crochet
- Before inserting the hook into the top of the stitches or chain you’re working into, yarn over so you have two loops on your hook to begin.
- Now, insert hook into the top of the stitches or chain you’re working into and yarn over.
- Pull through the top of the stitch or chain. This creates an extra, third loop on the hook.
- Yarn over and pull it through all three loops on the hook. That’s a half double crochet.
Double crochet (dc)
To create a double crochet
- Before inserting the hook into the top of the stitches or chain you’re working into, yarn over so you have two loops on your hook to begin with.
- Now, insert hook into the top of the stitches or chain you’re working into and yarn over.
- Pull through the top of the stitch or chain. This creates an extra, third loop on the hook.
- Yarn over and pull it through the first two loops on the hook. You should now have two loops on the hook.
- Yarn over again and pull it through these two loops. You’ve made a double crochet.
Crocheting into a magic ring
In Lesson One, you learned how to create a magic ring. Now that you know the basic crochet stitches, I’m going to talk about how to crochet into a magic ring. As I’ve mentioned before, learning to make and crochet into a magic ring was the toughest part of learning to crochet for me. So be patient, practice, and don’t lose hope if this doesn’t come easily. You can do it!
You can crochet any of the basic crochet stitches from this lesson into a magic ring. And you can pretty much crochet any number of them into it as well. To show you how to do it, I’m going to crochet six single crochets into the magic ring. From my experience, that’s the most common.
HELPFUL HINT:
One of the hardest things about crocheting into a magic ring is that if you aren’t careful the stitches can become twisted. You can prevent this by always keeping the yarn tight with your left hand and any time you pull up a loop from inside the magic ring, make sure you pull it all the way to the top before working with it. I’ll demonstrate this in the steps below.
- Start with a magic ring. I like to make sure none of the yarn is twisted before working into the ring. I also like to make sure that the loop around the hook isn’t too tight. If it is, it will create a small, tight first stitch that will be difficult to work into in the next round.
- Hold the loop and the loose end of the yarn together with the thumb and middle finger of your left hand you’ll need to go around both of them in order for the magic ring to work.
- Insert your hook into the ring below both the loop and loose end of the yarn that you pinched together in step 2.
- Yarn over and pull it through the magic ring. This creates a second loop on your hook. Make sure both loops are tight around the hook and pulled all the way to the top of the ring before continuing to the next step.
- Yarn over and pull it through both loops on the hook. You’ve just crocheted one single crochet into the magic ring.
- Repeat steps 2-5 five more times so that you have six single crochets on the magic ring.
- Pull the loose end to tighten the ring and form the stitches into a circle.
You have now completed the first round in your magic ring. You can start a second round by working into the FIRST stitch you made in the magic ring. How you start the second round depends on whether you’re working in continuous rounds or joined rounds.
Continuous rounds vs joined rounds
In continuous rounds, your work spirals upward. When you finish one round, you start the next by immediately working in the top of the first stitch of the last one.
For continuous rounds, you’ll want to use a stitch marker. Move your stitch marker to the first stitch of each new round so you don’t lose track of the beginning of it.
In joined rounds, you end one round by slip stitching into the first stitch of that round. You start a new round by chaining and working your first stitch into the one you just slip stitched into.
There are pros and cons to working in continuous and joined rounds. There are times when you might choose one over another, but for the most part, they’re interchangeable. A pattern will usually tell you which one works better for it. If the pattern doesn’t specify, my rule of thumb is to use continuous rounds.
Tightening your magic ring
In step 7 of crocheting into a magic ring, you pulled the loose end to close the circle. If you didn’t do anything else with this loose end, chances are that eventually, the circle would start to open up a little and create a hole in the middle of your work.
Depending on what your making, this might not be a huge deal, but if you’re making something that needs to be stuffed, the stuffing could start coming out of the hole.
To make sure the hole is closed tight, I wait until after I’ve finished my second row. Before I start my third row I pull on the loose end as tight as I can. And I mean AS TIGHT AS I CAN! You don’t want to snap the yarn, but you do want to feel it grating as it closes up completely.
Now would be a good time to hide that loose end. I’ll talk all about that in the next lesson!
Conclusion
Whew! Are you feeling overwhelmed yet?? If not, great! Keep moving on. But if you are, don’t worry. Keep trying. And feel free to reach out to me at any time with any questions. You can comment below or shoot me an email! I’m confident you can learn to do this, and I’ll help you however I can.
And remember this, crocheting is not about memorizing how to do all the different stitches, chains, and magic rings. That will come with time and with doing. So refer back to these lessons as often as you need to remember how to do all these things.
Good luck and see you in the next lesson!
