Crochet Slip Stitch

Slip stitches crop up all over the place when you're following a pattern.

They're often used as a joining stitch for a circle, or when you're putting two pieces together. It can also be used to edge your work.

I'm going to start this tutorial with the square that we made on the single crochet page. If you haven't made this, no worries. Simply crochet a chain and do a few rows of single crochet.

This will give us a nice, solid foundation to work with, as slip stitch can be a little fiddly to work first time round.

Here's the square:

A square made of single crochet

You'll notice the stitch marker in the last stitch of that row. That will help us see where to work the first slip stitch.

Slip Stitching along the Top of the Square

1. First make one chain to turn.

The marker is in the last stitch of the previous row:

The turning chain

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2. Turn your work. Take the marker out of the stitch, which is now the first stitch of our new row.

In the same stitch, insert your hook under the two loops of that stitch:

Inserting hook into stitch

 Yarn round hook:

Yarn round hook

Pull the yarn through the two loops of the stitch:

Pulling yarn through stitch

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3. Now you have two loops on your hook:

Two loops on hook

Pull the top loop through the bottom loop ...

Pulling top loop through bottom loop

 ... all the way through so that you are left with one loop on your hook:

One loop on hook

Once you get the hang of this, you simply pull the yarn through the two loops of the stitch, as well as the loop on your hook, all in one movement.

Here's the finished stitch:

Finished slip stitch

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4. Slip stitch all the way along the row:

Completed row of slip stitch

Keep your Tension Relaxed :)

You may feel as though the yarn is pulling against you, and that once you've pulled the yarn through the stitch, it's very hard to then pull it through the loop on your hook.

This is why I try to keep things a tiny bit loose, not holding the yarn too tight.

I pull the yarn through the stitch, then sometimes take a tiny breather and straighten up my hook, then go for the final pull-through of the top loop through the bottom loop on my hook!

It's actually quite rare to work a whole row of slip stitch.

Usually you'll work only one stitch, to join a circle, for example.

Here's the effect of this stitch on the other side of my square:

Ridged edge effect of slip stitch

It gives a slightly ridged edge here - a good effect!

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