Crochet Primer: Chain Stitch

Welcome to Part Two of our crochet tutorial here at figknits!

Even if you learn no other crochet techniques, even if you tune out everything about crochet that I tell you after today, please learn the chain stitch. This one crochet technique can aid in your knitting. It can help you make a pretty edge on your knitted fabric, as its twin sister, the slip stitch, it can help you seam knitted pieces, it can be used as a provisional cast on, and it can even help you bind off a knitted edge of fabric.

This is what I was telling you last time about wrapping the yarn around your index finger. Just thought I'd throw that in.

Let's do the chain stitch. Holding your hook securely in your right hand and your working yarn wound around your left fingers as instructed in yesterday's post, hold the bottom of your slip knot with your left thumb and middle two fingers. Take the hook under the working yarn, held taut, and pull the working yarn through the slip knot.

You did it! Now let's make another chain stitch. Take the hook under the working yarn and draw the yarn through the chain you just made.

Keep doing this maneuver until you have a line of chain stitches, which should look like this.

This is the top of the chain.

This is the underside of the chain. You'll need those little bumps on the underbelly to do a Crochet Provisional Cast On, a very useful technique.

Practice!!