Post stitches and cables · Intermediate
Back post half double crochet
A back post stitch in half double crochet (UK half treble) is a half double crochet worked round the post of a stitch, not into its top. Take the yarn over, bring the hook forward from behind the work, pass it in front of the post and take it to the back again, pull up a loop, and draw the yarn through all three loops. The stitch sits back on the side facing you. Patterns write it BPhdc or bphdc.
How to work it
Yarn over, and go round the post from the back
Take the yarn over the hook. Find the post of the next stitch, the upright part below its top. Bring the hook from the back of the work to the front just before that post, take it across the front of the post, and push it to the back again just after it. The hook now lies in front of the post.
Pull up a loop round the post
Take the yarn over the hook and draw it back round the post, the way the hook came. There are three loops on the hook, and the new loop passes in front of the post.
Finish the half double crochet
Take the yarn over and draw it through all three loops at once. One loop is left. The stitch is made, and it sits behind the row below.
At a glance
- Also called
- BPhdc, bphdc
- Used for
- ribbing, worked in turn with front post half double crochet; texture in fabric of half double crochet
- Abbreviation
- BPhdc, also written bphdc
- In UK terms
- raised half treble back (RhtrB)
- The hook goes
- From back to front to back, round the post
- Takes the place of
- The stitch whose post it goes round. Skip that stitch's top.
- Loops after the loop is pulled up
- Three
The moves on the hook are those of a plain half double crochet: yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over and through all three. Only the place changes. The hook passes in front of the post and not under the two loops at the top, so the stitch you work round is pushed away from you.
It is the front post half double crochet turned round. In a front post stitch the hook passes behind the post and the stitch stands forward; here the hook passes in front and the stitch sits back. Seen from the other side of the fabric, a back post stitch looks like a front post stitch.
A half double crochet is taller than a single crochet (UK double crochet) and shorter than a double crochet (UK treble). A post stitch can be worked in each of them, and the move round the post is the same.
For ribbing, a front post and a back post half double crochet take turns along the row. On every row after that, work a front post stitch round each stitch that stands forward on the side facing you and a back post stitch round each one that sits back. Published rib rows keep a plain half double crochet in the first and the last stitch.
When it goes wrong
- I cannot see where the hook goes.
- Look for the gaps on either side of the post. The hook comes forward through the gap before the post and goes back through the gap after it, so that the hook lies in front of the post.
- My row has too many stitches.
- After each back post stitch, skip the top of the stitch in front of it. Working into that top as well, by habit, adds a stitch.
- My rows get shorter.
- Rib rows end with a plain stitch in the last stitch of the row. Count the stitches at the end of each row.
- The stitch stands forward when it should sit back.
- The hook went round the post from the front. For a back post stitch the hook starts behind the work and ends up lying across the front of the post.
Left-handed
The pictures show the hook held in the right hand. For the left hand, read each picture as its mirror image.
Variations
- Front post half double crochet. The same stitch with the hook taken the other way round the post: in at the front, behind the post, and out to the front again.
- Back post double crochet. The same move in the taller stitch, with two pulls through two loops to finish.
- Back post single crochet. The same move with no yarn over first.
Questions
- What does bphdc mean in crochet?
- Back post half double crochet: a half double crochet worked round the post of a stitch from the back, not into the two loops at its top.
- What is the difference between fphdc and bphdc?
- The side the hook starts from. In a front post stitch the hook passes behind the post and the stitch stands forward. In a back post stitch the hook passes in front of the post and the stitch sits back.
- Does a back post half double crochet count as a stitch?
- Yes. It takes the place of the stitch it is worked round, so skip the top of that stitch and the row keeps its count.
- What is bphdc in UK terms?
- Raised half treble back, written RhtrB. In UK terms post stitches are called raised stitches, and a half double crochet is a half treble.