Basic stitches · Beginner
Chain stitch
To make a chain stitch, bring the yarn over the hook and pull it through the loop on the hook. It is the first stitch to learn and the way most crochet starts: a row of chains is the foundation chain that the first row is worked into. United Kingdom patterns use the same name.
- Abbreviation
- ch
- Chart symbol
an oval
How to work it
Yarn over
Start with a slip knot on the hook: its loop is the one loop on the hook. Take the yarn that leads to the ball over the hook from back to front (up behind the hook and over its top toward you), so that it lies over the hook between that loop and the hook's head.
Pull through
Catch that yarn in the head of the hook and draw it through the slip knot's loop. The old loop comes off the hook as the yarn passes through it, and the yarn you drew through is the new loop on the hook.
One chain made
That is one chain stitch. It hangs below the hook as one link between the slip knot and the loop on the hook. One loop is on the hook.
Repeat, and count
For each further chain, take the yarn over the hook and draw it through the loop on the hook, as in steps 1 and 2. Do not make another slip knot. Make as many chains as the pattern asks for. To count them, count the links between the knot and the hook: the slip knot and the loop on the hook are not counted.
At a glance
- Used for
- the foundation chain that the first row is worked into; the turning chain at the start of a row; spaces between other stitches, for open and lacy fabric; a ring of chains to start work in the round
- Not counted
- The loop on the hook and the slip knot
- Front and back
- The front of a chain is a row of V shapes. The back has a bump behind each V.
- Chains for a first row
- For single crochet (UK double crochet), chain one more than the number of stitches you want.
Make the chains loosely, and try to make each new loop about the size of the one before it. Even chains take practice.
A foundation chain needs one chain for each stitch that will be worked into it, plus the chains skipped at the start. For single crochet (UK double crochet) one chain is skipped, and it is not a stitch, so 21 chains give a row of 20. Taller stitches skip more, and in double crochet (UK treble) and treble crochet (UK double treble) the skipped chains themselves stand as the first stitch of the row, unless the pattern says otherwise. Each stitch has its own number, given on its page.
A pattern names the chain to start in by counting back from the hook, as in "sc in 2nd ch from hook". The loop on the hook is not counted. There is more than one way to put the hook into a chain: through the middle of the V, or under the bump on the back. A pattern that wants one of them says so.
Tips
- Hold the chain a little below the hook, and move your fingers up it as the chain grows.
When it goes wrong
- My chain is so tight that I cannot get the hook back into it.
- Make the chains more loosely. Let each new loop be about the size of the last one, and do not pull the yarn tight after every chain.
- I lost count.
- Lay the chain flat with the V shapes facing you and count the Vs. Each V is one chain. Leave out the loop on the hook and the slip knot.
Left-handed
The pictures show the hook held in the right hand. For the left hand, read each picture as its mirror image.
Patterns that use it
Questions
- How many chains do I make to start?
- One for each stitch of the first row, plus the chains that row skips at its start. For single crochet that is one more chain than stitches. A pattern gives the number, and the starting chain calculator works it out for a width of your own.
- Does the loop on the hook count as a chain?
- No. Count only the finished chains between the knot and the hook. The loop that sits on the hook is not one of them, and neither is the slip knot.
- Is chain stitch the same in UK patterns?
- Yes. It is called chain and written ch in both United States and United Kingdom patterns.