Floss Field.
SearchSaved
All crafts

Shells, fans and V-stitches · Easy

Box stitch

In crochet a box is three chains with three stitches of double crochet (UK treble) beside them, and box stitch is a fabric made of those boxes. The name often goes with corner to corner crochet, where the boxes are worked on the diagonal. This page shows the same box in straight rows: each one sits in the three chains of a box of the row below, held there by a single crochet (UK double crochet). Those straight rows are called crazy stitch.

How to work it

  1. Know the box

    A box is two things worked from one place. Three chains stand up along one side of it. Three double crochets lean away from the chains and fill the rest. Next to each other, the chains and the three stitches make a small square.

  2. Find the loop of chains below

    In straight rows a new box does not go into a stitch. It goes into the loop made by the three chains of a box in the row below. Each box below has one such loop, standing at its side.

  3. Single crochet, chain 3, three double crochets

    A box, in the accent color: a single crochet worked into the loop of three chains of a box of the row below, three chains standing up from it, and three double crochets that lean away from them. A ring marks the loop of chains that the next box goes into. One loop is on the hook.

    Work a single crochet into that loop of chains. Chain 3. Then work three double crochets into the same loop. That is one box: the single crochet holds it down, the chains are its side, and the three double crochets are its body.

  4. One box for every loop

    Move on to the loop of chains of the next box below and make the next box there. Carry on across the row. In the last loop of the row work a single crochet alone, then turn. The boxes of the new row will lean the other way.

At a glance

Used for
scarves and baby blankets, in straight rows; blankets and pictures in squares, worked corner to corner
In UK terms
each box is 3 chains and 3 trebles
One box
3 chains and 3 double crochets, worked from one place
Multiple, in straight rows
The starting chain is a multiple of 4: each box uses the chain it stands in and three skipped chains.

Three names get mixed up here, because all three fabrics are built from small squares of three double crochets.

Corner to corner, often written C2C, is also called diagonal box stitch, and a pattern that says box stitch may well mean this. It starts with one box at a corner. Every row is worked on the slant and has one box more than the last, until the piece is wide enough. There each new box is fastened to the chains of the box below with a slip stitch (UK ss), not a single crochet.

Crazy stitch is the straight version: the boxes of this page, worked back and forth from a starting chain, a single crochet in each loop of chains. The rows are level, and the boxes of one row lean one way and those of the next row lean the other. The crazy stitch page has the rows in full.

Block stitch is a different fabric. Its blocks are three double crochets worked into a space of two chains, and between two rows of blocks comes a row of single crochet and chains. There are no standing chains at the side of a block.

One more fabric is published as box stitch, and it is nothing like these: shells of double crochet with rows of front post stitches worked over them, in a repeat of eight rows. If a pattern says box stitch, read its first rows to see which one it means.

When it goes wrong

I do not know where the next box goes.
Look for the three chains standing at the side of the next box in the row below. The whole new box goes into that loop: the single crochet, and then the three double crochets.
My piece is turning into a triangle.
You are working corner to corner: one box, then two, then three. That is a way of its own to shape a square or a rectangle. For level rows, start from a chain and work one box for every loop of chains across.

Left-handed

The pictures show the hook held in the right hand. For the left hand, read each picture as its mirror image.

Variations

  • Corner to corner. The box worked on the diagonal, from one corner of the piece to the opposite one. Also called diagonal box stitch.
  • Crazy stitch. The box worked in straight rows, as on this page, with the rows and the edges written out.
  • Block stitch. Blocks of three double crochets in spaces of two chains, with rows of single crochet between. Not a box stitch, though the names are close.

Patterns that use it

Questions

Is box stitch the same as corner to corner?
Often, yes. Corner to corner is also called diagonal box stitch, and its little squares are the boxes. When a pattern says box stitch and begins with a single box, it is corner to corner.
Is box stitch the same as crazy stitch?
The straight rows of boxes on this page are crazy stitch. The two look alike from a distance, but crazy stitch is worked in level rows and corner to corner on the diagonal.
Is box stitch the same as block stitch?
No. Block stitch has rows of three double crochets worked into chain spaces, with a row of single crochet and chains between them.
What is the multiple for box stitch in straight rows?
A starting chain that is a multiple of 4. The starting chain calculator works out the number for the width you want.

Where to go next

Stitches

Tools