How to do the Double Crochet stitch (dc)
Crochet Stitches 101

2024-11-19 890 words 5 minutes

Double down on your crochet with the double crochet stitch (dc). It's dangerous to go without it, so come here for a neat lil' tutorial!

Prepare for Trouble! AND MAKE IT DOUBLE!

Contents

Wazzuuuup Crochet Crew?

This one is a must for your crochet stitches toolbox! Today, we gonna take a look at the way of the double crochet stitch. Usually, abbreviated with dc, it has nothing to do with comics and also there is no such thing as a counterpart marvel stitch. This is not the most-used stitch in Amigurumi by far, but it’s actually major versatile for things like details in Amigurumi and for any kind of wearables for sure. And that’s exactly why it shouldn’t be missing in any serious crocheter’s skill set (also not in any funny crocheter neither by the way).

But, hold up my Britisch friends! I am talking double stitch in US Crochet Terminology here. Read below for clarification.

To the bathroom or the loo? (or a tale of 2 different double crochet stitches)

Similar to what happened at the Tower of Babel, the crochet gods decided to punish us with a multitude of different terminologies for crochet stitchesÏ. Worse even, some clown even thought it would be a superb idea to use exactly the same terms, but describe very different stitches with them. That’s exactly what US and UK crochet terminology does for you, in a nutshell.

The double crochet stitch (US terminology) that we want to look at today is known as treble crochet in UK terminology. On the flip side, the double crochet stitch in UK terminology refers to the single crochet in US terms. So, don’t be fooled when some British lad approaches you brabbling about double crochet stitches in their Amigurumi. They are merely referring to the good old single crochet stitch that you are very familiar with for sure.

Usage Examples for the Double Crochet Stitch

In its nature, the double crochet stitch is longer in shape than the classic single crochet, because what you basically do is stacking 2 stitches on top of each other. This has several effects:

You get bigger or ’taller’ stitches. This way, you can cover ground a lot faster, which is especially useful when crocheting wearables.
You get a much less dense structure. Taller stitches also come with taller gaps and that gives a lot more room for the material to breathe. On the one hand, this is super bad for Amigurumi, as many parts have to be stuffed, requiring a dense outside. So, dc is mainly used for details in Amigurumi, but there it is extremely valuable. On the other hand, it’s perfect for wearables, as single crochet stitches would consume too much yarn, which would make the final results too heavy to wear, potentially too warm and on top also uneconomic, because more material and effort would be needed.

Take a look at some examples of mine where I made use of the double crochet stitch in the past:

My Bucket Hat Pattern mostly makes use of double crochet stitches. In combination with super bulky yarn, this makes it a super fast make. Only for the brim, I switched to half double crochet stitches to make it sturdier and not lose that typical bucket hat shape.
It makes another appearance in my Baby Sneakers Pattern. Here, it’s no more than a lil’ detail, but it’s just such a classic way of utilizing the dc. By switching the single crochet stitches on the final row of the main part up with some double crochet stitches, we can get a nice twist and that lil’ detail at the back to give it a curved and much more realistic shape.
Next up, the Slendercat Pattern. This is one of the Amigurumi detail examples. The dc is used for the revers to give it its typical shape and really stand out!

But, enough with all the teasing and talking now. Let’s get to it!

Step by step written instructions

You can do the double crochet stitch both in the Round and in the Row. For demonstration purposes I will start off here with a simple foundation chain, but generally the dc can be done anywhere within a pattern, be it into a stitch from the previous row/round, into a Magic Ring, into the front loop only, into the back loop only, … just everywhere.

To do the double crochet stitch, the very first thing we gotta do is yarning over. So this means picking up the working yarn with your hook and then having that and your initial loop on the hook
Then, go on by inserting your hook into the stitch that you want to work with.
With your hook still inserted in your working stitch, yarn over and pull through the stitch the hook is inserted into. This should leave you with 3 loops on the hook.
Next, yarn over again, but pull through only 2 of the 3 loops that you got on the hook. So, now you should still have 2 loops left on the hook.
Now, yarn over one more time and this time pull through the 2 remaining loops on the hook.
Pump your fist in the air in celebration, because you just successfully made a Double Crochet Stitch!