How to Double Crochet for Beginners – with Pictures

The double crochet stitch is another stitch that is a fundamental and basic stitch that can be used to create more complex stitches. It is slightly taller than a half double crochet and a treble crochet, and it has an airy feel. This is because there are larger vertical gaps between one row and the next because of the stitch height. The double crochet stitch is a great stitch to learn because it builds upon already established concepts in crochet that we have learned in previous posts called How to Make A Chain, and How to Half Double Crochet such as yarning over, and creating starting chains at the end of a row.

Without further ado, let’s get right into this tutorial!

Materials

For this tutorial, I decided to use a chainette yarn that I bought on Temu. A chainette yarn is great to use when learning how to crochet, as the yarn won’t split. The particular yarn I chose to use is quite thick – around a yarn weight of 5 – which will allow us to clearly see the stitches we are crocheting as well as the anatomy of each stitch. If you also check out my blog posts on How to Crochet A Chain, and How to Crochet A Half Double Crochet, I decided to use the same yarn for the sake of consistency, but also to ensure that it is easy to see differences between each of these stitches.

I also chose to use two hooks throughout this tutorial, which sometimes uncommon. This is because I decided that I will be making my base chain (which is a regular chain and not a foundation chain) using a larger hook – namely the 6.00 mm Clover Crochet Hook – and a smaller hook of size 5.5 mm from Temu to work the double crochet stitches. The reason for this is because using a larger hook for the chain when you have a habit of making tight chain stitches allows more room for crocheting stitches into each chain so that your work doesn’t curve or curl. I definitely recommend that you check out Clover Crochet Hooks as well, as they make the process of crocheting extremely streamlined! It speeds up the process of making large items significantly, which I suspect is due to the matte metal hook end and ergonomic handle, which is unlike any other hook I have found so far.

How to Crochet A Double Crochet Stitch

Step 1: Chain 20

To provide a base for our double crochet stitches, we begin by working 20 chain stitches. When crocheting these chain stitches, I used a 6.00 mm hook, and later switched to a 5.5 mm hook in the upcoming steps shown below. The reason I did this is because if you find that you make chain stitches too tightly, you may have a hard time inserting your hook into each chain to make stitches for the next row. If this happens, another problem that you may encounter is that your work tends to curve or curl, because the foundation chain is tighter than the stitches that you are trying to place in each chain stitch. The width of your chain stitches may be smaller than the width of each stitch you try to place in it, which is why you may benefit from making the chain in a larger hook than the hook you will be using for the rest of the project, although this is optional.

Optional Step: Swap Your Larger Hook for A Smaller Hook and Yarn Over

Due to tension issues mentioned in the previous step, you may want to switch to using a smaller hook once you have made the chain stitch. If you aren’t facing any tension issues, you can stick to using the same hook you used for the chain stitch as you crochet the rest of the stitches as well. Make sure that you yarn over at the end of this step, so that your yarn resembles the image above.

Step 2: Insert Hook into the Fourth Chain on Hook and Yarn Over

The left picture above allows us to see how to count each chain stitch. Generally, when counting chain stitches you want to make sure that you are not counting the loop that is currently on your hook. In the case of a double crochet, make sure you skip three stitches from your hook and insert the hook into the fourth chain. According to the image on the left that shows the chain stitch counts, this means you would yarn over (as you have done already in the previous step) and insert your hook into chain 17. Once you have done that, make sure to yarn over.

Step 3: Pull Loop Through Chain

Pull the yarn on the hook (from when you yarn-ed over in the last step) through the chain stitch. You should have three loops on your hook. If not, make sure that you yarn-ed over before inserting your crochet hook into the chain stitch, and yarn-ed over once more before pulling the hook through the chain stitch.

How is a Double Crochet Stitch any different from a Half Double Crochet Stitch?

Up until now, the steps to make a double crochet stitch and a half double crochet are the same. The fundamental steps to remember in both cases is that whenever you want to make either a half double crochet or a double crochet stitch, you yarn over, insert your hook in the next stitch (unless you are starting a new row), yarn over, and pull the yarn up through the chain or stitch from the previous row. The procedure to make a half double crochet versus a double crochet stitch differs beginning from the following steps.

Step 4: Yarn Over and Pull Through First Two Loops on Hook 

Now, yarn over, and pull the yarn that you have on your hook through the first two loops. If you have some difficulty pulling the yarn through the two loops, try rotating the hook end so that it is facing downwards as you pull the hook through the two loops.

Step 5: Yarn Over and Pull Through Last Loops

To complete the double crochet stitch, yarn over once more, and pull the hook through the remaining two loops on your hook. You should only have one loop left on your hook. That completes your first double crochet stitch! Hooray!

Step 6 – Infinity: Continue Working Stitches in the Same Way

If you’d like to make more double crochet stitches, continue working each stitch using the steps shown above. Since we started this row by making the first double crochet in the fourth chain from the hook, that means there were three stitches left unworked. Therefore, you should have 20 – 3 = 17 stitches at the end of the row.

What do I do when I get to the end of the row?

When you get to the end of the row, you follow a short and similar three step process that was also mentioned in the How to Half Double Crochet post. The difference in this three step process is that when you get to the end of the row, you chain three, turn your work (basically flipping it over) and then you continue crocheting across the row. 

Where do I place the stitches in the second row onwards?

Unlike how you worked double crochet stitches into chain stitches before, you work double crochet stitches into a previous row of double crochet (or any non-chain stitch row) by inserting your hook from the front to the back of your work. In other words, if you look at the top of your work, you will see a v-shaped formation of stitches. To make double crochets in following rows, you need to insert your hook underneath the half of the v in the front part of the stitch and the half of the v in the back part of your stitch (when you look at your work from above. This is also detailed in the first image, which shows you where you can make double crochet stitches in the second row.

How do I make it easier to keep straight edges?

If you have a hard time keeping the edges straight, consider investing in some stitch markers. The stitch markers that I recommend are those that are shaped like safety pins. The reason I recommend these ones is because they tend to stay on your work and do not slip off of stitches, unlike the ring shaped stitch markers that you can also buy. By using these stitch markers, you can mark the end of the row by using one stitch marker in the last stitch of the row. This would mean that you crochet into the stitch that has the stitch marker, and move it to the first stitch. If you would like to make it easier to keep track of the end of the row, I would recommend you use stitch markers in both the first and last stitch of the row, since you will turn your work every row. This will help keep the edges of your work straight, as it will ensure that you are making the same amount of crochet stitches in every row.

Conclusion

I hope this blog post gave you some helpful insight in how to crochet a double crochet stitch. This is a great stitch to learn, as it works up quickly, but also exercises the concepts that we have learned in previous blog posts such as How to Crochet a Chain and How to Half Double Crochet. I hope this blog post was useful. Happy Crocheting!