Welcome back to your second crochet lesson at Home of Yarns. This time, you can learn how to make a slip stitch and single crochet (which is called a double crochet in UK terminology).
Step 1: Starting Chain
In your first lesson, you learned how to make a chain stitch. You need a chain of chain stitches to start this lesson. Let’s make a chain of 11 chain stitches. If you missed the first lesson, click here.
Step 2: How to make a Slip Stitch
Turn your work so that the chain is on the left and your hook is on the right. Skip the first chain stitch and insert your hook from front to back in the top loop of the second chain from the hook. Yarn over and pull the working yarn through both the chain stitch and the loop on your hook. You just made a slip stitch! Continue by inserting your hook in the next stitch and repeat pulling yarn through both loops. Work along your whole chain like this, so you will get 10 slip stitches in total.
Step 3: How to make a Single Crochet (Double Crochet in UK)
Make one chain stitch and turn your work, so that your work is on the left side again. This is called a ‘turning chain’. It gives you the proper height for making the stitches in the next row.
For your second row, you are going to make single crochet stitches. Insert your hook from front to back throught the first stitch. As your previous row is made of slip stitches, you now insert your hook through both loops of the stitch. This is how you normally insert your hook in all crochet stitches except chain stitches. Yarn over and pull a loop through the stitch, but stop there. You now have two loops on your hook. Yarn over again and pull through both loops. That is a single crochet! Continue and finish your row.
Tip: pulling a loop through a stitch is easier when you turn the tip of the crochet hook to point down at the moment you want to actually pull the loop through the stitch.
Homework
Continue to make rows of slip stitches and single crochet stitches and practice making all your stitches the same size.
You can also start practising crocheting in the round. Start by making a chain of 10 chain stitches and join the chain to form a circle by making a slip stitch into the first chain stitch. Then, make one chain stitch to get the proper height and make a single crochet stitch in each of the following stitches until you are at the starting point again. Since you are now crocheting in the round, you don’t have to turn your work for every new round. If you did it right, you will have 9 single crochet stitches. As the first chain stitch counts as a single crochet stitch, you will have a round of 10 stitches. Close the round by making a slip stitch into that first chain stitch. Continue like this and you will get a tube of single crochet stitches.
Next time, in your third lesson, you will get to make your very first pattern!
