Finishing · Easy
Picking up stitches
To pick up stitches in crochet is to work a row of new stitches along the edge of a finished piece, most often along its side, into the ends of the rows. A pattern may say the same thing as "work into the row ends" or "crochet evenly along the side". The side has no stitch tops to work into, so you choose where the hook goes and how many stitches each row end gets.
How to work it
Rows of single crochet
Begin with one stitch in the end of each row of single crochet.
Rows of double crochet
A row of double crochet is taller, so begin with two stitches in the end of each row.
At a glance
- Used for
- the first round of a border or an edging; a button band worked up the front edge of a garment; the body of a piece worked sideways from a strip of ribbing
- Single crochet rows
- 1 stitch to a row end, to begin with
- Double crochet rows
- 2 stitches to a row end, to begin with
- Half double crochet rows
- Half double crochet (UK half treble) is taller than single crochet and shorter than double crochet, so begin with more than one stitch to a row end and no more than two. Try, and lay it flat.
- Another starting point
- Some teachers begin with fewer stitches than these.
- Where the hook goes
- Into the stitch at the edge, under a strand or two of its side. Round the whole stitch leaves a hole.
- What decides it
- The edge lying flat. The numbers depend on the stitch pattern and on how tall your own rows are.
The words come from knitting, where they mean something a little different. A knitter who picks up stitches puts a needle into the edge of a finished piece and draws through a row of new loops, which stay open on the needle to be knitted from. In crochet no loops are left waiting: each stitch worked into the edge is finished as it is made, and the row you have picked up is simply the first row of whatever comes next.
The side of a single crochet shows an upright strand, like a small bar. The hook goes under it. The side of a taller stitch is a post or a turning chain, and there is room to go right round it, which is what leaves the hole. Catching just the outer strands of the post or the chain keeps the new row tight against the edge.
No number of stitches to a row end is right for every piece. Teachers give different starting points, and several say to try it and look. Work in sections so that a wrong guess costs little.
When it goes wrong
- There are holes along the edge under the new row.
- The stitches were worked round the whole edge stitch or under the turning chains. Work into the edge stitch itself, under a strand or two of its side.
- The edge ruffles.
- There are too many stitches. Pull back and work fewer to each row end.
- The edge pulls in.
- There are too few stitches, or they are tight. Pull back and work more to each row end.
Questions
- What does pick up stitches mean in crochet?
- Work a row of stitches along an edge that has no stitch tops, usually the side of the piece, putting each stitch into the end of a row.
- How many stitches do I work in the side of a row?
- Begin with one for a row of single crochet and two for a row of double crochet. Lay the piece flat, and take stitches out if the edge waves or add some if it pulls in.
- Is it the same as picking up stitches in knitting?
- The idea is the same: new stitches along a finished edge. In knitting the new loops wait on the needle; in crochet each stitch is finished at once.