Chapter 6: The Half-Double Crochet

Louie's Loops

Beginner

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Video

Wait… why are we going to half double crochet before the double crochet? Well for a few reasons: First, you already know almost all the steps for this stitch from the sc2tog from the last chapter, and it’s going to be just a bit easier to go from the half double crochet to the double crochet.
Why is it called that?
I know, it’s a weird name, but it’s called the “half-double crochet” because it’s just a little bigger than the single crochet and a little smaller than the double crochet (which is double the size of a single crochet).

Start Pattern

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What you'll create

What you'll learn

01 The Half-Double Crochet

What you'll need

Cotton Yarn

Weight

Colors

Any Color

Crochet Hook

G6 / 4.00 mm

Abbreviations

Chain Stitch

Stitch

Single Crochet

hdc

Half-Double Crochet

Yarn Over

Other Useful Info

Pages

93-96

The Pattern

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(1:23) The time codes match to the pattern video

01The Half-Double Crochet

(0:14)

The half double crochet (aka hdc) looks a bit more complicated than the single crochet but it’s not that tough. You can use it to get some variation in your Rnds or Rows of your piece and add a little bit of height too. I like to use them for hat brims because it adds a bit more yarn to the piece for warmth and looks nicer than just using the same stitch for the whole thing.

The slip knot is the first step to begin most crocheted projects. Think of it as kind of a mini noose; you can pull one end and it will tighten or close the loop, but when you pull the other end nothing happens. They’re very easy to make, here’s how:

Step 1: Start off by yo (yarning over)

Step 2: Insert your hook in the next stitch

Step 3: Yo and pull that loop through the stitch

Step 4: Yo again, and pull that loop through all three loops on the hook to finish up the stitch.

Remember how after turning a Row of scs you had to ch 1 and skip the ch to continue? Well, with hdcs you need to make 2 chs and skip them before continuing to keep it going evenly.
This also means that before measuring how many chs you’ll need before starting, you have to account for those 2 chs, so +2 to all beginning chs.