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Crochet,  Crochet 101,  Crochet Tutorials

Crochet 101: The Slip Stitch

May 18, 2021 / No Comments

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Happy Tutorial Tuesday, friends!

I’m here again the next installment in my Crochet 101 series.

ICYMI, originally I only planned to have the first four tutorials (see below), but I felt it was remiss of me not to include a few other tutorials to round things out. Soooo three more tutorials LOL.

Most of the patterns and tutorials here on my blog use stitches that build on the basics, so we are walking it back a few steps to the beginning just in case you or someone you know wants to learn crochet from the beginning.

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.

Slip Stitch

In my first tutorial, Getting Started with Crochet, one of the things we went over in our crochet terminology was the expression “pulling up a loop.” The slip stitch is essentially pulling up a loop and then pulling that same loop through the working loop. Slip stitches are worked on the front side of your fabric, aka the side facing you as you work. They can be modified to create various textured stitches, like the yarn-over slip stitch I use in my Cozy Fireside Wrap. When working in the round, you may be required to “join” your last stitch to the first stitch with a slip stitch. Maybe you have two pieces you need to seam together, turn the pieces inside out and seam them together with the slip stitch. There are so many uses! Before we dive into how to work the stitch, let’s review some basic terms and phrases.

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.
Double Crochet (abbreviated as ‘dc’): yarn over, insert hook into the indicated stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop so that you have three working loops on your hook; yarn over and pull through the first two loops on your hook; yarn over and pull through both remaining loops on your hook.
Post: the vertical aspect of a stitch.
Half Double Crochet (abbreviated as ‘hdc’): yarn over, insert hook into the indicated stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop so that you have three working loops on your hook; yarn over and pull through all three loops on your hook.
Treble Crochet (abbreviated as ‘tr’): yarn over two times, insert hook into the indicated stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop so that you have 4 working loops on your hook; yarn over and pull through the first two loops on your hook, three loops remain on your hook; yarn over and pull through the first two loops on your hook, two loops remain; yarn over and pull through both remaining loops on your hook.
Slip Stitch (abbreviated as ‘sl st’): Insert your hook into the indicated stitch and pull up a loop, pull that loop through the working loop on your hook.

Video Tutorial

A full video tutorial can be watched on YouTube 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.

  • "Begin a slip stitch (abbreviated as "sl st") row with a chain 1. This is not counted as a stitch, but is only to gain the height for the row. Slip stitches are not usually worked in rows, but instead are most common when working in the round to join or close a round."
  • "Step 1: Insert your hook under the top 'V' of the indicated stitch."
  • "Step 2: Wrap the yarn over your hook from back to front, called a yarn over (abbreviated "yo"). Pull that yarn through the stitch, back the way you came."
  • "You are left with two working loops on your hook." The swatch below shows two loops on the hook, the left loop is marked "1" and the right loop is marked "2."
  • "Step 3: Pull the first loop on your hook through the second loop."
  • "Completed Slip Stitch"
  • "Completed Row of Slip Stitches"
  • "Anatomy of a Slip Stitch: Front Side" Red text reads "Top 'V' of Slip Stitch." Below that, blue text reads, "Notice how the 'top 'v' actually appears on the front, or the side facing you as you work it." Below the text, a swatch showing a row of slip stitches appears with the top 'v' of the center slip stitch highlighted in red to match the earlier text.
  • "Anatomy of a Slip Stitch: Back Side" Red text reads "Top 'V' of stitches in the row below the slip stitches" Below that, blue text reads, "The yarn pulled through the stitch in Step 2" Below the text, a swatch showing a row of slip stitches appears with the top 'v' of the center slip stitch highlighted in red to match the earlier red text and the horizontal bar beneath the top 'v' highlighted in blue to match the earlier blue text.

How’d You Do?

You did it! Woohoo! Keep practicing this stitch and work on that tension, aiming for evenly sized stitches. Want to make a project of your practicing? Try this fun beginner-friendly crochet wrap bracelet from One Dog Woof. Made with chains and slip stitches, it’s a great way to practice tension on chains and practice your slip stitch! Grab some worsted cotton yarn like this or this, or you could try a slightly lighter weight cotton yarn like this (she uses much thinner yarn/embroidery floss in her tutorial, but chunkier yarns work up faster and help you to see your stitches better as you’re just starting out), then grab the hook called for on your yarn label, and a cute button, or maybe more than one button because they’re seriously fun to make.

Next time, I’ll be back with the last tutorial in this series, where I’ll show you the finishing touches! So practice, practice, and I’ll see you again soon!

Until then, happy hooking!

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