Single Crochet
Mary Beth TempleDescription
In this video, Mary Beth Temple explains how to single crochet. This stitch is the shortest of all the crochet stitches that have height, and is one of the simplest stitches to create.
To begin, one chain is added at the beginning of the row. Mary Beth notes that a crochet pattern will tell you how many chains to work when starting a row. When working back and forth in single crochet, one chain is almost always worked before starting the row, but be sure to check the pattern that you are following. The single crochet is worked as follows:
- Bring hook under both legs of the stitch from front to back
- Yarn over (from back to front) and pull the yarn through the stitch (2 loops on hook)
- Yarn over (from back to front) and pull the yarn through both loops (1 loop on hook—single crochet stitch is created)
This process is repeated for each stitch across the row. As Mary Beth works each single crochet stitch, she mentions that it’s important to bring the loops of yarn away from the throat (small part of the hook) and up onto the fattest part of the hook (before the thumb grip). By doing this, a nice, even gauge is achieved, and the stitches won’t be too tight.
While it is common practice to work the hook under both legs of the top of the stitch to single crochet, some patterns will call for back loop only (BLO) or front loop only (FLO). In these cases, the hook is worked under one leg of the stitch, with front and back referring to how the stitches look as they are facing you while crocheting (it does not refer to the Right Side and Wrong Side of the fabric itself). Mary Beth ends the video with taking a closer look at the structure of the single crochet stitch, noting that it does look slightly different on each side of the fabric.
Hey, y'all. Mary Beth Temple here. And in this video, we're going to look at the single crochet. Now, so for as stitches with height goes, that's the smallest one, but once you get the hang of single, moving up and learning the other stitches is far easier. So let's take a look at the single crochet. Okay, let's take a closer look at that single crochet. Now, most times, if you're doing a section of single crochet, like I did here, you'll have a chain one at the beginning of the row. Now, your exact instructions will be in your pattern, so you don't have to go crazy about that. So I'm going to take my hook, I'm going to go under both legs of the stitch. I'm going to yarn over, making sure that yarn is going from back to front, grab that yarn and draw it through the stitch. Now I have two loops on my hook, one, two. Yarn over, once again from back to front, draw it through two. Here is my completed single crochet. Let's do a few more of those. And let me pull up some more yarn. Under both legs of the stitch, so you see there's two legs over my hook, yarn over from back to front, draw it through the stitch. I have one, two loops on my hook, yarn over, draw through two, and now the stitches complete. Through the stitch, yarn over back to front, pull it through, yarn over, draw through two. Now, let's talk about a couple of things while we're cruising along here. One is there are instances in which you will see the instructions call for a single crochet BLO, which is back loop only. And in that case you would work under just that leg, the back leg of the stitch, which is always the side that's away from you. It doesn't have to do with right side, wrong side of the work. It has to do with which is farther away from you while you're stitching. And if it was to say front loop, for example, FLO or front loop only, you would go under just the first one. So there are instances where that happens, but if it doesn't tell you, you're going under both legs. Now also, you will notice when I am stitching and I'm bringing that loop through, without even thinking about it, I'm making sure that that loop as I'm pulling it up goes up to the fattest part of the hook because if it doesn't, your work is gonna be super tight, particularly if you're using a big hook like this one, which I'm using so you can see what I'm doing. If you work too close to the throat, see the difference in that loop? See how tight that would be? It's really hard to work in later, so make sure that you're getting your loops up onto the fattest part of the hook because that is the part that sets your gauge. And again, most times, not every time, you're pattern will tell you what to do. But most times, if I'm doing a big single crochet section like this, when I get to the end, I'm gonna chain one, turn, and then work right into that first stitch going back in the other direction. Now, the single crochet, also, it looks pretty different on the front than it does in the back. Let's take a closer look at that. I'm sorry. That was weird. I'm just trying to get my yarn out of my way so we can see what's going on here. So this is the back of a single crochet and this is the front. So you see how on the front the V is a little tighter, and on the back the V is a little looser. That's fine. That's exactly what it's supposed to look like. It does look different on the back of the stitch than it does on the front. Okay, that's all there is to the single crochet, and now you can move on and learn some additional stitches. And once you have those basic stitches down, you can do just about anything in crochet. So thanks so much for joining me. See you again here real soon. Bye-bye.
This is not a duicate comment! It would be useful to see this from my starting point which is a chain.
It would be useful to see this started from a chain, which is where I'm starting. My chain looks nothing like the video.
Love Mary Beth Temple. She communicates beautifully and is patient in understanding that novice crocheters need explaining in slow motion.