Looking to add a little excitement to your Half Double Crochet stitches? Look no further than this VERY simple variation on the HDC! All it takes is inserting your hook into a different loop than usual to come up with this beautiful, faux knit pattern.
Now, there may be a technical abbreviation for this stitch, but I haven’t found it. So until I learn differently, I’ll be referring to it in my patterns as RibHDC. 🙂
What’s great about this stitch is that it shows up on both the back and front sides of your work, so it works beautifully for scarves, washclothes, etc. And it’s not as bulky as the front/back post method or the front/back loops only method.
Let’s get started…
First, we’ll take a look at the Half Double Crochet stitch. Normally, you’d yarn over and insert your hook underneath the two loops on the top, highlighted in the photo below in red. But for this simple modification, you’ll yarn over and insert your hook into the loop DIRECTLY BELOW the top loop, as highlighted in green. This special loop only shows up on the back side of your HDC stitches, so we’ll be turning our work as we go.
Here’s another view of that special loop, from the side.
So to get started, you’ll want to create a row of regular HDC. For this tutorial, let’s say 20. You can do this by chaining 21, HDC in 2nd Ch from hook, and HDC across. OR, you can use the Chainless Foundation technique!
Once you have your first row, Ch 1 (doesn’t count as HDC) and turn your work. You should be able to see those special loops now. Yarn over, and insert your hook under that first special loop.
Complete your typical HDC stitch: Pull your yarn through, yarn over, and pull through all 3 loops on the hook.
Done! Continue down the row until you’ve completed 20. You aren’t going to see that ribbing yet, unless you turn the work over and take a peek. The row you are working on creates the ribbing on the opposite side. Do a few rows and you’ll see a beautiful pattern emerge!
Sooooo easy, right?
Enjoy!
An easier and quicker way to get the same, or very similar, ribbed effect is to HDC around the whole post. I was having trouble finding that one loop due to eye issues. This solved my problem completely! Fits great. The ribs are closer together. Next one I will do a SC row between the HDC rows to get a more defined rib effect.
This is an elegant clean stitch. Working the loop directly below the top loop is a tiny bit awkward, but so worth it. I going to make an entire sweater with this stitch to get a vertical look. Thanks for sharing this Rebecca. All the best!
Hi Nicola! You’re basically right. Traditionally it’s been CH2, but more recently designers have been using CH1. It doesn’t effect anything other than filling in the little hole created by the chain. I also recommend CH2 for DC, whereas traditionally it’s been CH3. 🙂
Nice ribbing! I noticed you chain one at the end of your hdc row, while I see two chains for the turning row elsewhere. Is this common for hdc, because it’s kind of in between sc and dc? Super new to crochet here. Thanks for your helpful tutorials!