A ball of burnt orange yarn, a wooden crochet hook, a 4" white ruler and pair of filigreed embroidery scissors lay on a white background with an opaque white box on top of it containing blue text that reads "Crochet 101 Photo and Video Tutorial Series" and the website "www.hooksbookswanderlust.com" appears in blue text at the bottom of the image.
Crochet,  Crochet 101,  Crochet Tutorials

Crochet 101: Single Crochet

December 8, 2020 / No Comments

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Hi friends!

I’m back today with another installment of my Crochet 101 series.

In light of the coming new year, and the fact that many like to learn new skills as a resolution, I thought, why not do a beginner’s crochet series of tutorials? I mean, who doesn’t love a good how-to, right?

So here’s how things are going to work. Every Tuesday (Tutorial Tuesday, anyone?) for the next few weeks, I’m going to post a new beginner-friendly video tutorial, because I don’t know about you, but I learned best from videos!

Here’s a list of the tutorials I’ll be introducing! And don’t worry, I’ll be sure to come back and update each post with links as soon as those tutorials go live.

In each of these videos, I take a deep dive into common crochet terms, how to work a particular stitch or technique, and the structure, or anatomy as I like to call it, of those stitches.

Single Crochet

In this installment, I will show you how to make what is really a cornerstone to crochet, the single crochet! In order to be able to single crochet, you’ll need to be able to create a foundation chain, as taught in the first installment here.

Crochet Speak

Aside from all the stitch names, it is essential to familiarize yourself with the basic terms associated with crocheting. You will see these terms in the photos that follow as well as defined for you below. They are also covered in the videos. I’ll be adding to this list of terms each week as we cover additional material.

Yarn Tail or Yarn End: the literal end of your yarn
Working Yarn: the part of the yarn that feeds directly from the skein (pronounced skane), ball, or cake
Working Loop(s): generally refers to the single loop on a crochet hook between stitches, but can also mean the loops on your hook as you are in the middle of working a stitch
Yarn Over (abbreviated as ‘yo’): the act of wrapping the working yarn over your hook from the back to the front
Top ‘V’: references the top view of a stitch, which looks like a ‘V’
Back Bump: the bottom loop of yarn in a chain stitch, opposite the Top ‘V’
Tension: how tightly or how loosely you work your stitches.
Chain Stitch (abbreviated as ‘ch’): yarn over, pull through working loop
Pull Up a Loop: the act of pulling a yarn over of working yarn through a stitch and up to add an additional working loop to your hook.
Single Crochet (abbreviated as ‘sc’): insert hook into the indicated stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop so that you have two working loops on your hook, yarn over and pull through both loops on your hook.

Video Tutorial

The full video tutorial can be watched from start to finish here.

Photo Tutorial

While much of what I talk about is really best shown to you in a video, I thought it might be beneficial to supplement the video with some photos as well.

PRO TIP: begin each new row of single crochet with a chain stitch. This allows for the height of a row of single crochet because a single crochet stitch’s height is roughly equivalent to a chain stitch. The chain stitch will not count as a stitch in your pattern.

  • A swatch of single crochet made in a taupe cotton yarn is held on a white background with a finger and an arrow pointing to the space where the green crochet hook off to the right will be worked into. The photo is labeled with "You will be working into the small space at the top of the next stitch."
  • "Step 1: Insert your hook into the indicated stitch, working under the top 'V' of the stitch." A left hand holds a swatch of single crochet with a hook inserted into a stitch colored in orange.
  • "Step 2: Wrap the yarn over your hook - referred to as 'yarning over' or abbreviated 'yo' - then pull your working yarn back through the stitch. This is referred to as 'pulling up a loop.' A left hand holds a single crochet swatch in taupe colored yarn with a bright green colored hook inserted into a stitch with yarn wrapped over the hook, ready to pull the yarn back through the stitch in the direction instructed by an arrow.
  • "Step 2 Completed" shows a swatch of single crochet in a taupe colored yarn on a white background with a bright green handled crochet hook with two loops on the hook.
  • "Step 3: Wrap the yarn over your hook again, then pull the working yarn through the two loops remaining on your hook." A taupe colored swatch of single crochet lays on a white background with a bright green handled hook working a single crochet, with two working loops on the hook and the yarn wrapped over the hook.
  • "Step 3 Continued: Pulling the working yarn through the two loops on the hook." A bright green handled hook pulls the working yarn that was wrapped over the hook through the two loops that were on the hook.
  • "Completed Single Crochet" A taupe colored swatch of single crochet lays on a white background with a bright green handled crochet hook with one working loop on it having just finished making a single crochet stitch.
  • "Single Crochet Anatomy". In blue text: "Top 'V' of sc," in orange text: "Front side of sc," and in green text "Back side of sc." A swatch of taupe colored single crochet is held by a hand. The top 'V' of a stitch in the top row is highlighted blue; the front of a stitch in the top row is highlighted orange, and the back of a stitch in the row below is highlighted in green.

How’d You Do?

You did it! You are crocheting! Woohoo! Keep practicing this stitch and work on that tension, aiming for evenly sized stitches. Want to make a project of your practicing? Make hot pads or washcloths! Grab some cotton yarn like this, then work up a large square in single crochet.

Next week, I’ll be back with the next video in this series, where I’ll show you how to double crochet! So practice, practice, and I’ll see you again next week!

Until then, happy hooking!

Pin Image for SC Photo and Video Tutorial

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