Basic stitches · Easy
Treble crochet
To treble crochet, take the yarn over the hook twice, push the hook into the next stitch and pull up a loop, then yarn over and pull through two loops, three times. The stitch is also called triple crochet. It is taller than a double crochet (UK treble), and United Kingdom patterns call it double treble.
- Abbreviation
- tr
- In UK terms
- double treble (dtr)
- Chart symbol
an upright line with a bar across the top and two short slashes through it
How to work it
Yarn over twice
Take the yarn that leads to the ball over the hook two times, each time from back to front: up behind the hook and over its top toward you. Both yarn overs stay on the hook beside the loop you started with, and each counts as a loop: there are three loops on the hook.
Pull up a loop
Keep all three on the hook. Find the next stitch of the row below, the first one you have not yet worked into. Its top is two strands that lie side by side like a V. Push the hook under both strands, from the side that faces you through to the back. There, at the back of the work, take the yarn over the hook, the same way, and draw it back through the stitch, to the side that faces you. There are four loops on the hook.
Through two
Take the yarn over the hook, the same way, and draw it through two loops: the two nearest the head of the hook, which are the first two it comes to. Three loops are left on the hook.
Through two again
Do the same again: take the yarn over the hook and draw it through the two loops nearest the head of the hook. Two loops are left on the hook.
Through the last two
Take the yarn over the hook, the same way, and draw it through the two loops that are left. One loop is left on the hook and the stitch is made.
At a glance
- Also called
- triple crochet
- Used for
- open, airy fabric
- Height
- Taller than a double crochet
- To turn
- Chain 4. It counts as the first stitch of the row unless the pattern says otherwise.
- On a starting chain
- The first stitch goes in the fifth chain from the hook. The four chains you skip count as a stitch.
The stitch is a double crochet with one more yarn over at the start and one more pull through two loops at the end.
On a starting chain, yarn over twice and work the first treble into the fifth chain from the hook. The four chains you skipped stand as the first stitch, so a chain of 23 gives a row of 20: nineteen worked stitches and the skipped chains.
At the end of a row, chain 4 and turn. The chain 4 stands for the first stitch, so the first worked stitch goes into the second stitch of the row. Finish the row with a stitch in the top chain of the turning chain below.
Tips
- Say the loops as you go: four, three, two, one.
- In turned rows, every other row shows the back of its stitches, which does not look quite like the front. The pictures here draw every row alike.
When it goes wrong
- I lose track of how many times to pull through.
- When the hook comes back out of the stitch there are four loops on it. Pull through two loops three times, and the loops on the hook go from four to three, to two, to one.
- My rows are losing a stitch.
- Every row ends with a stitch in the top of the turning chain below, and that stitch is easy to forget. Count your stitches when the row is done, with the turning chain as one of them.
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
- Is treble crochet the same as triple crochet?
- Yes. They are two names for the same stitch in United States terms, and both are written tr.
- What is a treble in UK patterns?
- A UK treble (tr) is the stitch the United States calls double crochet. The US treble crochet is a UK double treble (dtr).
- Is there a stitch taller than a treble crochet?
- Yes. Each extra yarn over at the start makes a taller stitch, worked off two loops at a time in the same way. With three yarn overs it is a double treble crochet (UK triple treble).