How to Crochet the Lemon Peel / Griddle / Seed Stitch: A Complete Beginner’s Guide

The lemon peel stitch is an easy, but complex looking stitch that resembles the skin of a fruit… Can you guess which one? Lemon, of course! When I first started working on a swatch for the featured image of this blog post, I realized that lemon peel stitch is such a beautiful stitch to work with, because it creates this texture that is repeated across the stitches that you crochet. Something about it is pleasing to the eye, kind of like geometric patterns. That’s why I decided to write this tutorial about how to crochet the lemon peel stitch, with easy lemon peel stitch instructions. As with all the tutorials on this blog, I decided to include detailed images of each step to make the process of learning this stitch much easier.

I know you might feel a little intimidated by this stitch if you are a beginner in crochet, or maybe even if this is your first time crocheting the lemon peel stitch despite being an intermediate crocheter, but this stitch is great because it looks complex but is easy to crochet. To summarize the steps, this lemon peel stitch tutorial consists of alternating two common crochet stitches: double crochet, and single crochet. If you are a bit rusty on those stitches, I recommend you check out the tutorials on How to Double Crochet and How to Single Crochet. If you are just starting out in crochet, familiarizing yourself with How to Crochet a Chain and How to Make a Slipknot wouldn’t hurt either. A wonderful aspect of crochet is that most of the complex stitches (like this one) are made up of combining other basic stitches such as single crochet, double crochet, half double crochet, and treble crochet, with the fundamental stitches being a crochet chain and slipknot. Without further ado, let’s get right into this tutorial!

Fun fact: Lemon peel stitch is also known as griddle stitch and seed stitch!

Materials

• Chainette Yarn – This yarn is great for beginners because it doesn’t split easily, is easy to frog (or rip out your stitches) and it doesn’t come uncurled like conventionally spun yarn because this yarn is knitted in a tube. I got the yarn shown in the images above from Temu.
• 6 mm Clover Crochet Hook – I highly recommend this hook because it is ergonomic, and its matte hook head makes stitches slide so that you can crochet much more efficiently.

Stitch Multiples 

This stitch uses an odd number of chains. This is because the row always starts with a single crochet stitch, and ends with a double crochet stitch. We work stitches in pairs, because we alternate between single crochet and double crochet stitches. This means one pair consists of a single crochet in the first chain, and a double crochet in the second chain, which is repeated across the row. The images of this lemon peel stitch tutorial will help see this more clearly.

Row Repeat

This stitch uses a one row repeat. This means that once you have memorized how to do one row, you can repeat the row for all the other rows of the project. This means that this is a great beginner crochet stitch, because you only have to remember how to crochet one row of this pattern. The higher the number of row repeats means that you have to remember how to do more rows, making the stitch more complex and harder to remember. For instance, a stitch that has a five row repeat means you need to remember five rows so that you can repeat them at the end of the five rows again, whereas one row repeats mean that you only have to repeat them every row instead of every five rows.

How to Crochet the Lemon Peel / Griddle / Seed Stitch

Step 1: Chain 21

In this step, we work an odd number of chains, namely 21 stitches. This is because an odd number of chain stitches will allow us to evenly work the stitches across the row so that we have exactly 10 single crochet, double crochet pairs in any given row. 

Note: Throughout this pattern, we only place one stitch in every stitch from the previous row. There are no increases, or skipping stitches in the middle of the row when crocheting the lemon peel stitch.

Step 2: Single crochet (sc) from the second chain from hook

In this step, we work a single crochet stitch in the second chain from the hook. This means that we skip the first chain from the loop on our hook. Remember that we don’t count the loop that is on our hook as a chain stitch.

Step 3: Double crochet (dc) in the next stitch

Now, make a double crochet stitch in the next chain stitch located right after the single crochet you just made.

Step 4: Single crochet (sc) in the next stitch

Make a single crochet in the next chain stitch.

Step 5: Double crochet (dc) in the next stitch

We work a double crochet in the next chain stitch as a continuation of the already established pattern of crocheting a double crochet stitch followed by a single crochet stitch.

Step 6: Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you reach the end of the row

Now, we have to repeat the steps 4 and 5 until we reach the end of the row. This is because the established pattern of working a double crochet stitch following a single crochet is what makes the lemon peel stitch what it is. If you think of working the single crochet stitch in the first chain and double crochet stitch in the second chain as a pair, then you would have 10 pairs of these stitches at the end of the row. This means that you should have 20 stitches at the end of the row, if you started with 21 chains. This is also because we skipped one chain when we worked the first single crochet into the chain. You should end the row on a double crochet stitch.

How do you work stitches in the next row?

Congrats on getting this far! You just made your first row of lemon peel stitches!

When you reach the end of the first row of lemon peel stitch, you follow a three step procedure at the end of the row. The first step consists of chaining one, since the first stitch you will make in the next row is a single crochet. Then you turn your work. Lastly, you single crochet in the first stitch of the previous row, which in this case is a double crochet. 

If you complete these three steps every time you reach the end of a row when you are crocheting the lemon peel stitch, you can continue working this stitch upwards. This is an important step, especially if you are working the lemon peel stitch over multiple rows continuously. 

Zoomed In Image of Stitches

For the second row, I decided to take some close up shots of the stitches that need to be made to crochet the lemon peel stitch. Hopefully, this helps to clear up some of the confusion you may still have from previous steps:

How do I know I’m placing my stitches in the right place?

One of the great things about this stitch is that you have a higher chance of knowing when you aren’t placing the current stitch, whether that is a single crochet stitch, or a double crochet stitch, in the right place in this particular stitch pattern. This is because one characteristic of this stitch is that if you made a single crochet in the previous row, then you place a double crochet in that stitch in the next row. This is what makes the alternating pattern of single crochet and double crochet stitches great, and also helps to make sure that you are making the correct stitches as you work across the rows. This also works out because this stitch pattern requires that you start with an odd number of chains, which means that you will always start the row with a single crochet stitch, and end with a double crochet stitch no matter what row you are working on. We also have to chain one stitch at the beginning of the row because we skipped one stitch when we made the first row of lemon peel stitches. 

If it’s difficult to keep track of which stitches you placed in the previous row, then you could keep track of the previous stitch you made and make sure that you don’t make the same stitch. For instance, if you just made a double crochet in the previous stitch, make sure you don’t make a double crochet in the next stitch, because you should make a single crochet.

How do I keep my edges straight?

If you have a hard time keeping the edges of your crochet work straight when working any stitch pattern, you can use stitch markers to mark the first and last stitch of every single row. This means that as soon as you crochet the first stitch of any row, you place a stitch marker in that stitch. Once you make the last stitch of any given row, you add a stitch marker in the last stitch. Then, when you start working stitches in the next row, you remove the stitch markers from the previous row and mark the new first and last stitches of the next row using the same stitch markers in the same way as you did in the first row of your work.

Conclusion

Hopefully you learned how to crochet the lemon peel stitch with this helpful beginner lemon peel stitch guide! I hope these instructions were helpful and clear. If you thought this was a fun tutorial, leave a comment down below about your experience with lemon peel stitch. If you thought these were easy lemon peel stitch instructions, feel free to share across social media as well. Happy Crocheting!