Other Crochet Basics

Check out my other crochet basics, On this page you will learn how to make a slip stitch, magic ring and much more. Just click on one of the links below for step by step instructions.

• Making a Slip Stitch
• Making a Magic Ring
• Invisible Decrease
• Making two rounds from a single previous round

Other Crochet Basics 

Making a Slip Stitch

Slip stitches are used to close a round, or to skip stitches that you do not want to work.  

Insert your hook through the next stitch as you would if you were making any other stitch.  Wrap the yarn around the hook and pull through to the front of the work.  Pull the loop through the loop already on the hook.

Making a Magic Ring

Many of the patterns I use start with making a magic ring. 

There are a couple of ways to do this and the method you choose will depend on personal preference. I use a method that involves wrapping the yarn around two fingers on my left hand with the yarn crossed.  I then insert the hook under the first strand, hook the 2nd strand and pull it through under the first strand.  The magic ring is finished by wrapping the tail yarn around the hook and pulling it through the loop on the hook to from a stitch.  

You can then start working your first round.  In the video before that round consists of 6 single crochet and a slip stitch to close the round.

A second method involves working some chain stitches that you close in a loop.  For example, crochet 4 chain, slip stitch into the 1st chain to form a loop.  

I prefer the first method as you can pull the magic ring tighter with this method than you can with the chain method.

Doing an Invisible Decrease

There are several different way to do a decrease, you can skip a stitch or you can crochet two stitches together. But I am not keen on either of those methods, skipping a stitch tends to leave a noticeable gap and crocheting through the two stitches looks a little bulky.

To do an invisible dec you still crochet through two (or more) stitches but you only use the front loops of each stitch instead of both loops.  This method makes the decrease virtually invisible, so much so that I have trouble finding decreases when I look count of my stitches on a decrease row.

Making two rounds from a single previous round

Sometimes you want to create two rounds so that you can add layers to your project.  For example I like to add lace in a different colour around the waist of the dresses I make for my dolls, so I have the lace worked in the front stitch of the previous round and the skirt continues on the back loops of the round.

The way I do it is that I work a round in the back loop of the previous round using the yarn (colour) that I want to make the skirt with.  This usually involves increasing in each stitch to flare the skirt.  Once I have finished the skirt I attached the yarn for the lace at the beginning of that round (the one worked only in the back loop - you should be able to easily see the unworked front loops - and work my lace rounds in the front loop of the last round of the bodice.