Half Double Crochet Two Together Decrease Photo Tutorial
Hi again!
Continuing with my crochet stitch tutorials, today’s post is the Half Double Crochet Two Together Decrease, or hdc2tog!
Decrease stitches are crucial when you want to do more than a rectangle or an ever expanding circle. They help you shape a piece without the gaping holes created when you just skip a stitch. For any project that needs shaping, like garment design or amigurumi, decreasing stitches are crucial.
There are decrease stitches for all the basics, single crochet decrease, double crochet decrease, etc. Today, I will be showing you how to decrease using half double crochets.
Half Double Crochet Two Together Decrease Tutorial
With a Half Double Crochet Two Together Decrease, abbreviated in patterns as hdc2tog, we will be magically transforming two hdc stitches into one! Start by locating the two stitches you will be decreasing over.
Step 1
You will start your hdc just like normal. Yarn over (yo), insert your hook into the first stitch, yo, and pull up a loop. You should have 3 loops on your hook: one from your working loop, one from your yarn over, and the last is the one you just pulled up.
Step 2
This is where we differ from a normal hdc. With that half formed hdc from Step 1, you will start another half formed hdc in the next stitch. Yo, insert your hook into the second stitch, yo, pull up a loop. You should now have 5 loops on your hook: the three loops you ended Step 1 with, plus your yarn over and pulled up loop from this step.
Step 3
So now you have a half formed hdc in the two stitches you want to decrease over. To complete the stitch, yo and pull through all 5 loops on your hook. Congratulations! That’s it! You are now a hdc2tog ninja!
Now that you have mastered the Half Double Crochet Two Together Decrease, you are ready to start having fun with shaping! And now that you know how to decrease over two stitches, you can decrease over more for even more fun! Just repeat Step 2 for as many stitches you need to decrease (it will add 2 loops to your hook for each repetition), then just pull through all the loops you end with on your hook for the final step!
Update 1/27/22: There is now a video tutorial available for this stitch!
As mentioned in my previous post, this was the last tutorial I needed to release before I could release my next pattern. Stay tuned for some fall fun! You don’t want to miss it! In the meantime, if there’s a stitch you want to see on the next tutorial, let me know!
Until next time,
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