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How to Work Chain Stitch (Crochet)
The chain is crochet’s foundation and its smallest stitch — one loop drawn through another, over and over, until you have a soft cord of little Vs that almost everything else is built into. Our patterns lean on it constantly: the chain foundation under the banksia doily’s oval, the turning chains at the end of every filet row, and one memorable garland vine that is nothing but a 300-chain cord dressed with acorns and leaves.
Step by step
- Start with a slip knot on your hook: make a loop, draw a second loop through it, and settle it so it slides when you tug the tail but doesn’t flop about. That knot itself is never counted as a chain.
- Hold the short tail and the base of the knot steady between thumb and finger of your non-hook hand — this little grip is the secret nobody mentions, because a chain worked on a running-away knot twists and tightens itself into knots of the wrong kind.
- Yarn over: bring the yarn over the hook from back to front, so it sits in the hook’s throat.
- Draw the yarn through the loop already on your hook. One chain made — it looks like a small V with the hook sitting in its top. The loop on the hook is never counted either; count the Vs below it.
- Repeat: yarn over, draw through. Aim for a gentle, even rhythm rather than speed, and let each new chain be the same size as the last — a chain of mixed sizes makes a foundation row of mixed sizes, and everything built on it wobbles.
- Keep the loop on your hook a touch loose. Chains strangled tight are the beginner’s classic sorrow: the foundation chain must accept a hook into every stitch later, so if yours fight back, work your chains one hook size up and swap back down for the first row.
- For a foundation chain, count carefully and add the turning chain your next stitch needs: as a rule of thumb, the row’s stitch count plus 1 extra chain for single crochet, 2 for half double, 3 for double (UK: double, half treble, treble). Our patterns always state the number to chain in full — follow it, and count your Vs twice on anything long.
- Know the chain’s other jobs so you recognise them in patterns: a turning chain lifts you to the height of the next row; chains skipped over stitches make the open spaces of filet and lace (written ch-2, ch-5 and so on); and chains worked loose and long become loops, bridges and cords — garland vines, hanging loops and chain-loop lace hems all start right here.
- If your chain twists into a spiral as it grows, your loops are too tight or your grip is turning the work — lay it flat, smooth it out with your fingers, and carry on with a looser hand. A good chain lies flat, feels springy, and unzips back stitch by stitch without a fight if you ever need it to.
Patterns that use it
Aussie Flora Doilies Crochet Patterns Vol 1 Waratah Wattle Banksia Thread Crochet Lace Table Decor
The literal phrase “chain stitch” appears only once in the whole catalogue (in a knitting pattern’s how-to pages); chains themselves are named in 40 crochet listings — the five above name them most plainly in their copy.
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Common mistakes
- Counting the slip knot, or the loop sitting on the hook, as a chain. Neither one counts — only the little Vs below the hook do — and that one extra (or missing) chain throws the whole foundation row out.
- Bringing the yarn over the hook from front to back instead of back to front. The chains form twisted and splitty, and they never sit as flat or even as they should.
- Tension creep: each chain quietly smaller than the one before as your hand tightens with concentration. The foundation ends up shorter and tighter at the far end, and the first row waves instead of lying straight.
Tina’s tips
- Chain a little longer than the pattern asks — five or ten extra costs nothing. If the count comes up short you simply unravel the spares from the tail end, and if it’s long you’ve saved yourself starting over.
- Count your Vs in tens and slide a scrap of contrast yarn through every tenth chain on a long foundation. When you recount at the row’s end — and you should — it takes moments instead of squinting.
