How to Make a Crochet Chain
Mary Beth TempleDescription
In this video, crochet expert Mary Beth Temple demonstrates how to create a simple crochet chain. The first step to starting many crochet projects is creating a chain. A chain can also be used throughout the project, both in a stitch pattern and to create other details within the pattern, such as for an armhole for a sweater.
Mary Beth begins by making a slip knot, noting that the slip not does not count as a stitch. The chain is then created by working a yarn over (from back to front) and pulling the yarn through the loop – one chain is created. This process is repeated until the desired number of chains are achieved.
Once the chain is created, Mary Beth examines the structure of it. The front of the chain looks like the letter V, while the back of the chain has a bump. Each chain is made up of three “legs.” Two legs in the front, with the third leg in the back. When the crochet chain is being created for the purpose of starting a project, new stitches can be worked into either the front or the back of it.
Just as the slip knot does not count as chain, when adding chain stitches within an existing pattern, the loop on the hook does not count as a chain. The chain isn’t created until the yarn is worked over the hook and a new loop is pulled through.
Hi guys, Mary Beth Temple here, and in this video, we're going to learn how to make a chain stitch. Now, oftentimes you will use a chain at the beginning of your project. We'll call that a foundation chain. But even if you choose to go with a chainless foundation, which is another video that we'll talk about later, you also often need chain stitches within the body of your fabric. So let's take a closer look at the chain stitch.
Let's talk chain stitch. Now, if I'm doing a foundation chain, which is what we call the chain that begins a project or a piece of a project, I'm going to start with a slip knot, and I'm going to put that on my hook, making sure that it's on the gauge part of the hook, not too close to the throat, and not up where the thumb rest is, but on the part of the hook that determines the gauge. And then I'm going to yarn over, making sure that I'm yarning over from back to front, and I'm going to pull that yarn over through the loop that's on my hook. So that is one chain, because that slip knot, when you put that slip knot on there, that does not count as a stitch. So that's one, two.
Now, as I keep going, you can see I'm moving my left hand up, closer to the hook, to make sure that I have some tension on this. So once again, that hook goes under the yarn, that yarn over is going from back to front, and I'm pulling it through the loop that's on the hook, and once again, because I'm using an especially fat hook because I want you to be able to see what I'm doing, I really have to make some effort to make sure that that chain is going up on the fattest part of the hook, because if I work too close to the throat, it's going to be too tight. So there is my chain stitch. This is the front of the chain. This is called the front of the chain, and you can tell it's the front, because if you look at the base of that chain stitch, you see a little V.
See how it goes like that, it's a little V? And then this is the back of the chain, and you can tell because instead of seeing v's, you're seeing bumps. Now, if you are crocheting away on a piece, and it tells you to chain wherever you are, you're down to probably one loop on your hook, and you're just going to chain however many it tells you and move on to the next instruction. Just remember, when you're starting with a slip knot or you already have a working loop on your hook, when you are working a more complicated pattern, the loop on your hook does not count. The first chain is when you yarn over and pull it through.
So there we have everything you need to know about how to make the chain stitch. Once again, I'm Mary Beth Temple, thanks for joining me.
In the downloaded tutorial, the abbreviations don't say what "SK" is, but it's the first instruction! "SK 2 sc"????? Step 1 Photo for SC doesn't show the "little v's",
awful, kept breaking up.....not worth my time or money.