A Tutorial on How To… Single Crochet!

Hi! Welcome to this lesson on how to single crochet. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been crafting all your life, work whether you think of yourself as entirely uncreative – once you’ve learnt this super easy stitch this whole new world of imagination will be open to you!

Before we start crocheting it’s important for you to know when you need to use this stitch. When you first try to read a pattern it can seem like trying to crack a code. But don’t worry! Once you’ve learnt a few simple terms you’ll be ready to go! The abbreviaton for single crochet when written in a pattern is “sc”. This is generally followed by a number which tells you how many single crochet stitches to make. For example, “sc 6” means single crochet 6 stitches. Got it? Great, then here we go!

"sc ..."

The Anatomy of
a Single Crochet Stitch

Before I actually make the stitch I just want you to have a close look at the make-up of a crochet stitch. If you look from the side of the piece you can see the v-shape which is characteristic of crochet. If you look at the top edge of the piece you’re working on you will see that each stitch has two strands of yarn, which we call loops.

In order to teach you how to single crochet I’ve pre-made this little piece for you. It’s a simple half-sphere which is how many of your amigurumi pieces will begin so it makes for a pretty good demonstration.

“But wait… what?!

How do I get to this point?!”

The eagle eyed among you will probably have noticed that to make this starting piece I’ve used a lot of single crochet stitches already, but don’t panic! I know you’re keen to learn how to get started, but for those of you looking to make 3D objects like amigurumi you’re going to be starting using the Magic Circle, otherwise known as the magic loop or magic ring, and for THAT you need to know how to single crochet!

1. Insert your hook under both loops of the next stitch

For the standard single crochet stitch you want to find the next stitch to the left in your piece of work and insert your crochet hook through BOTH of these loops.

2. Yarn over

You will be holding your yarn in your left hand so it should be stretching away to the back and left. You want to make sure that to insert your crochet hook BELOW this working yarn and catch it with the hook. This is called a yarn over.

3. Pull the yarn back through the stitch

Now that you’ve caught your yarn in your hook you need to start pulling your hook back through the stitch, turning your hook to the left as you do so. You want to turn it until by the time the hook is JUST about to pop back through the stitch it is almost upside down. This will keep the working yarn securely hooked.

Pull the hook and working yarn fully through the stitch and then push it forwards again – you will notice you now have 2 loops on your hook compared to the one you started with.

4. Yarn over (again)

Yarn over by inserting your hook underneath the working yarn.

5. Pull the yarn through both loops on your hook

Pull this yarn back towards the two loops on your hook, again turning your hook as you do so. When you get to the loops use your hook to pull the yarn through BOTH loops on your hook.

And there you go, you’ve finished your first single crochet stitch!