Welcome to Part 2 of my How-To series. In the first part, we learned how to make a starting chain and then how to do the single crochet stitch. Next in the list of basic stitches is the half double crochet. It’s not that much different than the single crochet, so if you’ve read that tutorial, you’re already mostly there! If you’ve not read it, you can find it here!

I love this stitch, and I’m not just saying that because I’m writing this blog post! It is so simple, yet so versatile. Combine the half double crochet with any other stitch, and you have endless pattern possibilities!

I recommend working on the stitch as you read through this tutorial and look at the photo demonstrations. That way, you are building up the muscle memory as you go along and are not trying do it all from memory later. If you don’t have any materials to work with, I recommend this Red Heart Super Saver Yarn and this Susan Bates crochet hook.

Now, let’s learn the half double crochet!

Either working in your starting chain or in the top of another stitch, the first thing you are going to do is yarn over your hook.

Next, insert your loop in the stitch and pull up a loop.

Next, yarn over and pull through all three loops on the hook.

That’s all the half double crochet is! Repeat this for every half double crochet and your set! If you look closely, the half double crochet stitches have a bar near the top of the stitch, which is useful for identifying the stitch if your working it with another crochet stitch.

A good thing to note, is that in most cases, the beginning of a row of half double crochet is a chain 1, although some patterns use a chain 2. With this stitch in your toolkit, you’ve expanded the amount of patterns you can make! Remember, practice makes perfect, and with practice, this stitch will be flying off your hook!