Use the Chainless Starting Stitches to Give Your Crochet a Perfectly Straight Edge! | Yay For Yarn

Hey, I'm Yay for Yarn. And today I'm going to show you how to use

chainless

starting

stitches

so that the

edge

s of

your

crochet

are

perfectly

straight

every time. This is a sample of a typical method of working back and forth in rows. Normally when we work back and forth in rows, we always have to knit a

starting

chain or a turning chain to get to the height we need to start knitting the next row. And this can be a little problematic depending on the stitch you're using. Because if you look at this side of my swatch, I've done one of the methods where you work

your

starting chain or turning chain, and then you don't count it as a stitch and work the first regular stitch in the same stitch that the chain comes out of.

And this, while it

give

s the correct height, leaves you with this kind of wobbly

edge

here, because every other row has that rotating chain bubbling out of the edge. So this

give

s it a sort of twisted-looking advantage. And the other commonly used method of chaining and then turning is to count the turning chain as one stitch and work the first stitch of the row into the next stitch after the turning chain stitch comes from. And this produces a closer rule. But then you get these kind of little gaps and holes at the ends of the rows, because the spinning chain is not

straight

in the first place.

And secondly, it's not as thick or shaped like a regular stitch. So down here I have this problem shown in double

crochet

over. Here you have a little half double crochet. And for these smaller points, it's not as noticeable. For example, up here in single crochet, the swivel chain bulge on this side is very small. And on this side, the space between the turning chains is almost non-existent. Simply because it is such a short turning chain. I only chained one for my swivel chain at the low point. So for the low point, it's not really that noticeable.

And you really won't even be able to see much of a difference. But for some of these higher

stitches

, it can be a problem because we naturally want our edges to be straight, but we don't want any of these gaps. And so, you know, sometimes we can use this method here to get a gapless edge, and then it's not straight. So I'll show you how to use

chainless

starter stitches to start your crochet row. In some of my other videos we've seen, starting stitches without a chain to start a round and get an invisible join. But in this video, I'll show you how to use those points to get a

perfectly

straight edge, no bubbles when turning the chains, and no gaps between the chains.

Alright, here's my basic chain and I'm going to start with some double crochets. So I'm going to start with a starting double crochet without a chain. Now, to do this on a foundation chain, you just want to make sure that when you go to insert the hook into the chain, you're not just inserting into this top strand, but the top and middle strands, and that makes a more secure stitch. . So if you've seen any of my other videos on chainless starting stitches, then you'll be familiar with this. We are going to stretch the loop of the crochet hook until it is approximately the height of a normal double crochet.

I'm going to hold the back of that loop with my finger, and then I'll bring the hook toward me and then back to make the equivalent of a

yarn

over with that extended loop. And then I'm going to insert in my first chain knot by skipping chains and then working on the third one. We're going to work on that first chain where the loop came from, but we're going to insert not only the top thread, but also the top and middle threads, and we're going to knit and pick up a loop. Then we're going to knit and pull through the first loop and that double strand loop from which we extend the loop that we knit with and then knit and pull through the last two loops.

Now, the first starting double crochet without chain in the base chain row will generally not be as perfect as the rest. But that's okay because it will still be much less noticeable than a gap or a bubble, as I call them in this video. So now I'm just going to double crochet each of the remaining chains in my row. Alright, there's my front row. And as you can see, the initial double crochet without chains here looks like a normal double crochet. So now I'm going to turn and work on the next room. Then I'll turn around.

I'm going to stretch the loop on my crochet hook until it's at least the height of a normal double crochet or maybe a little bit taller. I'm going to put my finger on the back of the loop to keep it still on my hook. And I'm going to

yarn

over with that extended loop by bringing the hook towards me and then back down, I'm going to insert the hook into the same point that the loop came from. Knit and pull one loop, knit and pull through two loops, knit and pull through two loops. Again, it has the appearance of a normal high point.

And I'm just going to double crochet all the way. And then when I get to the chainless starting double crochet of the previous row, I'm going to work directly into it as usual. So there's our second row. I'm going to make another one to show you one more time. So I'm going to stretch the loop on my hook. I held the back of the loop with my finger. Bring the hook toward me and down to knit with the loop extended. Insert my crochet hook into the same stitch. Yarn. Raise a loop. And then finish like a normal double crochet with a yarn over and pull through two loops.

Yarn over, pull through two loops, and then I can double crochet to the end. And then when you get to the last stitch, it will be the initial double crochet without chain of the row below. And I'm just going to work on the top as if it were a normal stitch. There will be two-thread loops at the top of the stitch, just like any other normal stitch. If we place this, level it, you'll see the edges. Now, this one here is a little bit tilted because it hasn't been worked on from the top yet. But the side edges of our crochet are straight, but we don't have any of those spaces from the normal turning chain because there are no turning chains where you replace the turning chain with the starting double crochet without a chain.

So I'm going to work a few more rows of double crochet with this method so you can see a little better what it looks like. Okay, here you have several rows of double crochets. So you can see this a little better. But like I said before, there are no gaps or bubbles on the edges and the edges are completely straight. So now I'll show you how you can do the same thing with half a double crochet. And for a half double crochet it will mean a safety stitch marker, a safety pin, or a bobby pin, a bobby pin, some kind of U-shaped item or whatever that we can slide around the stitches.

It's still going to be removable. So preferably a safety pin, bobby pin or locking stitch marker like this one, a split ring stitch marker will also work. So this is what we are going to do. We are going to turn and we are going to work our initial half-high stitch without chain. So again, to do this, we're going to stretch the loop on the hook until it's about the same height as a half double crochet, and then we're going to take our stitch marker and just loop it around. That extended loop like this. I want to close mine, but you don't need to close it if you're using something that can't be closed.

So I'm going to hold that stitch marker against the back of my crochet hook, and that will help prevent the stitch from unraveling because with a half double crochet stitch, if you don't have the stitch marker to hold it, then it will unravel and come undone. until a certain point. It won't come apart, you know, completely. But if it is unscrewed, then it will not look like a half double crochet and will look stretched. So what we're going to do is use that stitch marker to hold the loop at the top still, and I'm going to secure it by holding it against the back of my hook.

I'm going to yarn over with that extendable loop, insert my hook in the same stitch. Yarn over, pull up a loop and then yarn over. Get ahead. One, two, three for the three loops and then the stitch markers will stay there and hold that loop still because I want to show you what happens if it untwists. If it is unscrewed, then it will be like this. And then it will no longer be a half-high point. So we want to make sure it doesn't unscrew. Now, once we work our second half double crochet, you won't be able to do that.

But you don't want to let it go or just let it, you know, go its own way and do whatever it wants until you've worked another stitch. So I'm going to go ahead and work a half double crochet into the rest of my row. And now you can see that once I've worked the second half double crochet, this cannot be unscrewed. But the stitch marker will still help us work it on the next row. So I'm going to do half a double crochet throughout. So down here I'm going to work on top of that initial double crochet without chain row because my previous row is double crochet.

I'm going to turn and work. Another starting half double crochet without a chain, so I'm going to grab a second stitch marker. So if you're going to work back and forth across rows, you'll need one stitch marker to hold the one from the previous row and then a second to hold the initial half-double stitch without chain on the current row. Then I'm going to do the same thing again. I'm going to stretch the loop until it's a little higher than a normal half double crochet and then hook the stitch marker around the extended loop. I like to close mine and then I'll attach it to the back of my hook so I can knit with the loop extended and insert it into the same stitch.

Thread, pull up one loop. Then, yarn over and pull through the three loops on the hook. And that's our first half double crochet without a chain. Then I can work a normal half double crochet all around. So now here we are at the last stitch of the row, which is the initial chainless half double crochet of the previous row. And I'm just going to knit a stitch normally making sure my crochet hook follows the same path as the stitch marker. And then once the points are completed, I can take out the point marker because we no longer need to hold that point.

Now it's safe because we worked on one, you know, at the top. And that will hold it completely, you know, securely. Now I can use this stitch marker for the next row. So I'm going to stretch the loop on my hook and then I'm going to place that stitch marker around the loop and I'm going to hold it on the back of my work or on the back of my hook, I should say, with my index finger. And then work that initial double crochet without chain in the same stitch and then half double crochet to the end.

And then when we get to that chainless half double crochet from the previous row, we'll work on the top normally, like we would work on the top of a normal stitch and then we'd remove the stitch marker and now we can use the stitch marker to the next row. So I'm going to do one more row of double crochets and then I'll show you what it looks like. Alright, now I can put this down and show you. And also in this section, with the half-high point, the edges are as close to being perfectly straight as possible and there are no gaps in the rotating chains.

So now I'm going to show you how to do it with a single crochet. Now, with a lower point the difference will not be so noticeable. But I'll show it to you anyway, in case you want to use it. So for a single crochet, we don't need a stitch marker and the single crochet is actually the easiest to do here. So, for a single crochet, we will simply stretch the hook loop a little and work a regular single crochet in the same stitch. This is how we work a single crochet without a chain. I'm going to make single crochets until the end.

And of course, I'm going to single crochet at the top of that chainless half double from the beginning of the previous row. I can get out that stitch marker now. And now, for the next row of single crochets, I'm again going to turn, stretch the loop on the hook a little or do a regular single crochet in the same stitch and then a single crochet all the way. And then we will work the single crochet without a chain from the beginning of the row, like a normal stitch, because it is a normal stitch. That will also give us perfectly straight edges.

But it won't be that noticeable of a difference because when you use a twist chain with a single crochet, you can't see much of it anyway because the twist chain is very short and the single crochets are very short. Alright, here's my finished sample. And you can see our nice, clean, straight edges on both sides of our sample. And I also want to mention that when you use a non-chain stitch to start your row, that will not inhibit the stretching of the edges of your work. Whereas if you use a twist chain, if you're using the method where you don't count the chain as a stitch, then it will stretch.

But if you count it as a stitch, there's a limit to how far those chains can stretch. Because chains don't stretch as much as regular stitches. Here are our two samples side by side, and you can see that the chainless stitch method produces a much cleaner, straighter edge. That, in my personal opinion, looks a little cleaner than having a straight edge with gaps and holes, or a wavy edge with no gaps or holes. So I hope you found this video useful. If you liked it, give it a like. Let me know if you've ever used a chainless stitch in the comments below.continuation.

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