Post stitches

How to work it

1. Find the post

   

   The post is the upright part of a stitch, below the two loops at its top. A double crochet is tall, so its post is easy to see. A post stitch never uses those two top loops: the hook goes round the upright part.

2. Round the post from the front

   

   For a front post stitch, push the hook in at the front of the work just before the post, on the side of the stitches you have already worked. Take it behind the post and bring it out at the front again just after the post. The post lies across the hook. Then take the yarn over, pull up a loop round the post, and finish the stitch as usual.

3. Round the post from the back

   

   For a back post stitch, bring the hook from the back of the work to the front just before the post, take it across the front of the post, and push it to the back again just after the post. The hook lies across the post. Then take the yarn over, pull up a loop round the post, and finish the stitch as usual.

4. Skip the top of that stitch

   The post you worked round belongs to a stitch whose top is still there: behind a front post stitch, in front of a back post stitch. Do not work into that top as well. Go on to the next stitch of the row.

At a glance

Also called

raised stitches, front post and back post stitches

Used for

ribbing; cables, which are post stitches worked out of order so that they cross; raised patterns such as waffle stitch

Abbreviations

FP for front post and BP for back post, joined to the stitch: FPdc, BPdc, FPtr

In UK terms

raised stitches: raised treble front (RtrF) and raised treble back (RtrB)

Worked round

The post of a stitch in the row below, or in a row lower down when the pattern says so

Front post

The stitch stands forward on the side facing you

Back post

The stitch sits back, and stands forward on the other side

Turning chain for rows of post double crochet

Chain 2, one fewer than for plain double crochet

When it goes wrong

My hook went through the top of the stitch.

Round the post means the hook never goes under the two top loops. It goes in beside the upright part, round it, and out on its other side.

My row has too many stitches.

After each post stitch, skip the top of the stitch whose post you used. Working into that top as well adds a stitch.

My ribs do not line up after I turn.

Look at the stitch you are about to work round. If it stands forward on the side facing you, work a front post stitch round it. If it sits back, work a back post stitch.

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 double crochet. The post stitch most patterns use. The page gives every move.
• Back post double crochet. The same stitch pushed to the back of the work.
• Front post treble crochet. A taller front post stitch, with two yarn overs. Cables use it, and so do patterns that work round a post two rows below.