Crochet guide
Necklines and collars
A crochet neckline is shaped in one of two ways. In a flat panel, the front is divided at the neck and each side is finished on its own. In a top-down piece, the neck comes first, and the rest of the garment grows out from it. A band, a collar or a hood is then worked onto the edge. This guide explains each step. It is not a pattern.
On this page 6 parts
In a flat panel
On a sweater made in panels, the back usually goes straight up to the shoulders. The neck is shaped on the front.
The front is worked like the back until a few rows from the top. Then it is divided. The stitches in the middle are left unworked, and they become the bottom of the neck opening. One side is worked on up to the shoulder by itself, with decreases at the neck edge. The yarn is joined again on the far side of the middle stitches, and the other side is worked to match.
A panel that is worked from the shoulders down is shaped the other way round. The two shoulders start as two separate pieces, widen at the neck edge with increases, and are joined into one piece at the bottom of the neck.
In a top-down piece
On a top-down sweater the neck comes first. The piece begins as a ring at the neck: a chain, or a band of ribbing joined into a tube. The yoke is worked out and down from that ring, so the size of the ring is the size of the neck opening.
A neck made this way is the same height at the front and the back. To raise the back, a few short rows are worked across the back of the yoke only. They let the back of the neck sit higher than the front.
The shapes of a neck
| Neck | What makes it |
|---|---|
| Boat | No shaping at all. The front and back are straight across the top, and the shoulder seams stop short to leave a wide opening |
| Round or crew | A curve that follows the bottom of the throat: a group of middle stitches left unworked, then a few decreases at each side |
| Scoop | A round neck made deeper and wider |
| V | No middle stitches left unworked. The front divides at one point, and each side slants away from it, with decreases or increases at the neck edge at a steady rate |
A boat neck is the simplest, which is why it turns up on the plainest sweaters. A top-down V starts as an open shape, with fronts that grow at the neck edge until they meet at the point.
Finishing the edge
A neck opening is usually finished with an edging or a band. There are two common finishes.
- A round or two of single crochet. This is single crochet in United States terms and double crochet in the United Kingdom. It is worked evenly around the whole opening. Picking up stitches shows how to space the stitches along row ends.
- A band of ribbing. It is worked around the opening, or made as a strip long enough to fit the opening when slightly stretched and then sewn on. On a top-down sweater it is often made first. Crochet ribbing has the stitches.
Collars
A collar is whatever is built on the neck edge beyond a narrow band.
- A ribbed band is the plainest. Worked in short rows that run crosswise to the neck edge and made deep, it becomes a roll neck or turtleneck that folds down.
- A fold-down collar is worked in rows outward from the neck edge, or from a chain as long as the neck edge, and then folded over.
- A shawl collar is a wide collar on a V neck that rolls back in one unbroken curve. It is common on cardigans, where the band along the front opening can carry on around the neck as the collar.
- A hood starts the same way as a collar. It is worked in rows up from the neck edge, then folded in half and seamed along the top.
How a shawl collar is built
The collar can be one band of ribbing, worked in rows only a few stitches long that run across it. Each row is single crochet in the back loop. At the end of every second row the band is joined to the garment's edge with a stitch or two, so that it grows along the edge as it is made: up one front, around the back of the neck and down the other front. Making the band longer, in more rows, takes it farther along the edge; making each row longer makes the collar wider. Crochet ribbing shows the rows.
Where to go next
- How a crochet sweater is put together, for the panels and the yoke.
- How to crochet sleeves, for the other shaped part.
- Short rows, for raising the back of the neck.
- Crochet ribbing, for bands and collars.