Linked Double Crochet Stitches

Hi, I'm Brenda KB Anderson. Thank you for joining me. In this video, I will be showing you how to work a linked double crochet stitch. I'm gonna show you both how to work it back and forth in turned rows, and I will also show you how to work it in the round, and some tips about making the beginning of your round look smooth. First, we're gonna show, first, I'm gonna show you how to work it back and forth in turned rows, so you can chain as many stitches as you need.

It doesn't have to be an even or odd amount or anything like that. Just any amount of stitches is fine. And I prefer to start my first row by working in the bottom bump, or the backside of the chain, some people call it. That's this side of the chain, where you see those little horizontal dashes. The top of the chain, which is where you normally work under, are these little V shapes.

And the reason that I work into the back of the chain instead is because it's just easier for me to get my hook underneath that little dash, but also, it makes a nice tidy edge, because the bottom of your crochet will look exactly the same as the top. So you're gonna add three chains for your turning chain. One, two, three. And a linked double crochet is pretty much the same thing as working double crochet, except for how you pick up that first loop. So we're going to, instead of doing a yarn over like a regular double crochet, we're going to insert out hook into there.

We're gonna pick up the second bump, or if you're working into the top of the chain, that's fine, you'd be picking it up from the second chain. So we're gonna insert our hook there and pull up a yarn, and that is instead of just doing your yarn over for a regular double crochet, you're just gonna pick up that loop. And then you're going to skip the next stitch, 'cause that's still part of your turning chain, and work into the first stitch here. So you're gonna skip that one, work into the next stitch. Insert your hook and pull up a loop.

And now you're gonna complete your double crochet just like you would do a normal double crochet. So yarn over. You've already done your yarn over. Pull through two, yarn over, pull through two. That is the first stitch in linked double crochet.

And after that, it gets a little bit easier. So instead of doing a yarn over like a normal double crochet, we're going to pick up our first loop from this horizontal bar, which is about halfway between the top and the bottom of your double crochet stitch. That horizontal bar right there, we're gonna insert our hook from the top to the bottom through there to pick up our first loop. So we slide it through, yarn over, pull up a loop and then we'll go into the next stitch. Insert your hook, yarn over, pull up a loop.

So then we'll complete our double crochet. Yarn over, pull through two. Yarn over, pull through two. And then we'll just continue working like that across the row. So we'll insert our hook from the top to the bottom through the horizontal bar, yarn over, pull up a loop.

And then insert your hook into the next stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop. And then we complete our double crochet with a yarn over, pull through two, yarn over, pull through two. So let me work that across the rest of the row and I'll show you what that looks like. So here we have the first row done, and you can see that by inserting your hook through that line, it makes it a more pronounced line going across here, and that's characteristic of the linked double crochet stitches. They have those nice ridges.

You can see it here, there's one there and there's one there. So on the next row, you will chain three for your turning chain. One, two, three. And then you're going to be picking up a loop from that middle chain, so this one right in the center of those three. So you'll insert your hook, yarn over, pull up a loop.

And then you're gonna work into the first stitch, insert your hook, yarn over, pull up a loop. And then complete your double crochet like normal. Yarn over, pull through two. Yarn over, pull through two. So we'll repeat again across the row.

You're gonna insert from the top to the bottom through that bar. Yarn over, pull up a loop. Insert into the next stitch. Yarn over, pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through two.

Yarn over, pull through two. Insert hook from top to bottom, pull up a yarn. Insert hook through the next stitch. Yarn over, pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through two.

Yarn over, pull through two. So you can see what's happening. You're getting another dashed line across here on this side and when you work in turned rows, you'll see that horizontal line on every other stitch because the, on every other row, I should say, because the other row is facing the other way. So you have that horizontal bar on this side. so there's space to part here, here and here.

So you would just continue working back and forth. Just remember to do, to pick up your loop in the middle of that turning chain, and then to pick up your loop in the next stitch and then complete your double crochets just as you normally would. And then your sample will look just like this. So next, I'm gonna show you what to do if you're working in the round. Working in the round in this stitch looks similar, except that you see these horizontal rounds, or the horizontal ridges more often because you're gonna see it on every single round instead of every other round, so it has a different look to it.

So you can chain any amount, and then add your turning chain of three. One, two, three. Actually, because we're working in the round, we are going to only do one turning chain, 'cause this is a little trick that I learned about making your edges smoother. When you first start out, because your stitches are taller, there's gonna be a jag in the edge of your piece if you don't gradually work you way up to having a taller stitch. So what I like to do is I start out my piece having just one turning chain, and then I do a single crochet stitch, just like that.

So you'll, to do the single crochet, you'll just insert your hook, yarn over, pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through two. So that's a shorter stitch. And then I do a half double crochet. Yarn over, insert hook.

Yarn over, pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through all three. Basically, what we're doing here is we're just creating a little ramp to go from nothing down here up to as tall as a double crochet stitch. So on the next stitch, if you, because we're linking our stitches, we're also going to be working into this bar of the half double crochet. It's, this is the top stitch, and then there's this sort of crooked bar about halfway down the front of your half double crochet.

So we're gonna go from top to bottom through that stitch, or through that part of the stitch to pull up our loop. So now we're gonna be working in the linked double crochet. So insert our hook, yarn over, pull up a loop. Insert your hook, yarn over, pull up a loop. And then we're gonna complete our double crochet as normal, just like that.

And then we will continue to work across by linking our stitches. Insert, this is exactly the same as the last swatch. So now we finished working our linked double crochet stitches all the way across the row, and we're gonna begin working in the round. So we will curve around the start of our stitches here, so they butt up right next to where we're working, and we are going to, instead of doing a yarn over, we're going to pick up a loop here, right there, pick that up. And then we're going to insert our hook into that first stitch and pick up a loop there, like that.

And we'll complete our double crochet as before, our linked double crochet. Now we're going to insert our hook, once again, in that bar, pick up a loop. Into the next stitch, pick up a loop. Yarn over, pull through. Yarn over, pull through.

Insert your hook from top to bottom, yarn over, pull up a loop. Pick up a loop here, yarn over, pull through, pull through. So you can see what's happening here. At the very beginning of our, of our crochet row, it's connecting now to the bottom of that linked double crochet, because we did a shorter stitch here. If we had done a longer stitch, there would be a big jag and it would be starting down here and the ends would not be even.

So I prefer to not join at the end of my rounds for this particular stitch, because if you try to join at the end of your round, that just means, joining just means you would do a slip stitch into the first stitch, and then you would do a beginning chain up. If you do that, then you're not gonna be able to connect the last stitch, the last linked stitch that you made to the first stitch of that round, and there's always gonna be a gap there. So that is why I prefer to do this in the round without joins, and I make that little ramp at the beginning. So I'm just gonna continue around here, and then you can see what the stitch looks like as it's worked in the round. It does have a little bit of a different look to how it looks when it's in turned rows.

So now you can see, we've worked a few more rounds in the stitch pattern, and you can take a look at the differences between working in the round and working back and forth in rows. You can see these horizontal stitch lines are much closer together on this, because you see them on every single round instead of on every other row here. They're spaced further apart. One of the things that I really love about this particular stitch pattern is with the linking stitches, you get, you don't have those holes that you see, normally see between your taller stitches, yet you still have nice flexibility and stretch and drape, and it really makes for a lovely fabric either way you do it, back and forth in rows or in turned rounds. So I hope you've enjoyed this video learning how to make the linked double crochet stitches.