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Learn how to crochet a chain.
The chain stitch is one of the most common stitches to learn when you’re first starting crochet. It’s the first stitch I learned when I started crocheting, and honestly, although I found it more difficult than other crochet stitches, it set the foundation for me to be able to learn other more exciting stitches.
As the chain is often crocheted at the start of a crochet project and is used a bit like a holding place for your other crochet stitches to go into, I always recommend that learning how to crochet a chain is a good starting place for brand new crocheters. And yes, this even counts if you make amigurumi (then the surprise chains in amigurumi patterns won’t catch you off guard).
Before we get started, I must say, please do hang in there! Your chains may not look perfect at first, and that is honestly okay. All you need to do is keep trying, keep practicing, and I promise you over time crocheting chains will get easier and they will look better. The most important thing is to give it a shot and not give up.
Here is what you’ll learn in this blog post about crocheting chains:
- Discover what a chain stitch is and what they are used for
- Learn how chains are written in crochet patterns
- Learn how to crochet a chain
- Learn how to count your chain stitches
- Three exercises to try so you can practice crocheting chains and master the technique
What is a chain stitch in crochet
Chains are used in a wide range of crochet projects from clothing, to homewares, fashion accessories, and even amigurumi.
In many cases, chains are used to start off a project. In these cases often the chain is referred to as the Foundation Chain. This is not a different type of chain stitch but simply means you need to start the project with a chain before you can start crocheting the stitches that the crochet pattern requires. This also means that in these cases often the chain is not counted as a row of stitches in the pattern. Don’t worry too much about this yet as I’ll cover this in more detail in another post once you’ve mastered crocheting a chain. First thing is first!
Chains can also appear in the middle of crochet patterns. These chains can appear for a variety of reasons but often it is for some kind of desired effect within the pattern such as gaps, colourwork, or pretty little details that can be created by using chains. I’ve put some images below of completed patterns I’ve made that use chains that create different results.
The big difference between crocheting a Foundation Chain versus crocheting a chain in the middle of a project is how you start the chain.
Foundation Chains require a knot in the yarn so you can start crocheting. This knot is called a slip knot and is firmly secured around your crochet hook so you can start crocheting the chain from scratch. Whereas chains within a pattern are often directly after stitches, which means your hook is already secured to the yarn and you can immediately start crocheting chain stitches without needing to create a knot in the yarn.
The main reason I wanted to explain this difference is to outline that the type of chain you’ll learn to crochet in this blog post is a Foundation Chain, which includes instructions on how to tie a slip knot, crochet chain stitches, and how to count your chain stitches. This will mean you’ll be prepared for both foundation chains and chains that come up mid-way throughout any crochet pattern.
How to identify a chain in a crochet pattern
Before we get to the fun part of how to crochet a chain, I thought it would be useful to show you how chain stitches are written in patterns.
The two main types of patterns you’ll come across when crocheting are written patterns that use abbreviations and numbers, and crochet charts that use symbols to identify the stitches used within the pattern.
For those of us who speak English, there are two types of pattern terms you will come across in written patterns. These two terms are known as UK terms and US terms. Now, unfortunately it is not as simple as using the pattern terms associated to the country you live in. It really depends on the project you want to crochet and what terms have been used by the designer to write the pattern. This is why it is extremely important to be aware of the two different terms to ensure you are crocheting the correct stitches for the crochet pattern you are using. It sounds confusing I know, but I promise it will all become clearer the more you crochet and it will get so much easier.
Thankfully, for the chain stitch the abbreviation used in written patterns using UK terms or US terms is the same. This is not the case with other stitches, but it is the case for the chain – yippee!
The abbreviation used is ch.
What does this mean?
So when you read a crochet pattern, the crochet pattern may start with something like this…
Ch 20
This simply means, create a Foundation Chain with 20 chain stitches. The ch within the pattern means chain and the 20 in the pattern refers to the number of stitches required.
If the chain was written within a row or round (e.g. in the middle of the crochet pattern), it may look something like this…
R10: 10 sc, 10 ch, sk 5, 10 sc (30)
You do not need to know all this extra information just yet, so please don’t let it intimidate you, but it is simply here to give you an insight into how a chain stitch might appear in the middle of a crochet pattern.
In this example, R10 means Row/Round number 10. This is the row or round of stitches you are up to in the pattern, which means you have already completed 9 rows or rounds in the pattern before this one.
10 sc means single crochet (another stitch we’ll come to another time) 10 times.
Then the chain appears with 10 ch, which means you would crochet 10 chain stitches (no need for a knot).
The sk 5 means skip 5 stitches, then there is another 10 sc which is another 10 single crochet stitches.
The final (30) is the total number of stitches you’ve crocheted in the row/round, keeping in mind that when you skip crochet stitches this is not crocheting, it is simply jumping over stitches in the previous row/round. Therefore, the total number of stitches actually crocheted is equal to 10 sc + 10 ch + 10 sc = 30 total stitches within this row/round.
Now you’ve gained an understanding of how a chain is depicted in written crochet patterns, I’ll show you how a chain is displayed in crochet charts.
The symbol for a chain stitch within a crochet chart is shown in the image here.
A foundation chain would be shown in a chart like the two images below, which would also indicate where to start from with either an arrow or a triangle or something similar.
The first chart shows a straight foundation chain, and the second shows one that is looped around. You’ll notice that the first image only shows the chain symbols, whereas the second chart that is in a circle/loop shape has an extra symbol (the dot). This is because the first crochet chart is a ‘row’ where all you need is chains (and a slip knot to start the chain off), whereas the second crochet chart requires a slip knot, chains, plus one extra stitch (a slip stitch) to join the chain together into a loop.
I won’t go into more detail with crochet charts in this post, because I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much information. I simply wanted to make sure you understood and feel comfortable in being able to identify a chain stitch in whatever pattern you choose to crochet. I do hope this has helped.
How to crochet a chain
Now for the fun part, where you can actually pick up your yarn and crochet hook!
In this section, I’m going to focus on showing you how to crochet a Foundation Chain. This will set the foundation for any future crochet stitches you learn and will put you on a great path to mastering crochet.
As explained, the Foundation Chain is made up of two elements:
- The slip knot – this is a knot you create to attach the yarn to your hook before you start crocheting.
- The chain stitch – this is the part where you start crocheting chain stitches and you repeat these stitches until you reach the desired number of chains.
Let’s start with the Slip Knot.
How to tie a slip knot onto your crochet hook
Step One
To secure a slip knot onto your crochet hook, simply find the tail end of your yarn and loop this around so it sits on top of the yarn tail before it.
Step two
Insert your crochet hook under the top of the yarn that is in a loop, and bring your hook up through the centre of the yarn loop as shown.
Step three
Now using the crochet hook simply hook under the straight bit of yarn that is sitting behind the yarn loop created.
Step four
Using your hook, pull this bit of yarn that you’ve hooked onto through the circle/loop.
Step Five
Using your hand, pull both yarn ends to tighten the knot.
Step Six
Now pull the longer yarn tail (the one attached to your hook), to tighten the loop onto your crochet hook Make sure your yarn is now securely on the shank of your crochet hook but make sure it is still loose enough so you can move the yarn on the hook back and forth.
If you’d like to see the slip knot being done in action, here is my slip knot YouTube video tutorial to help.
Now that you have your yarn attached to your crochet hook you can start your chain stitches.
How to crochet chain stitches
Step One
Now get ready to crochet, by holding your hook in your most dominant hand and your yarn in the other hand. For me, as a right-handed crocheter, I hold the crochet hook in my right hand and my yarn in my left hand. If you need some help getting set-up, find out how to hold your hook and yarn here.
Step Two
To crochet a chain the first step requires you to yarn over. Yarn over is a common crochet term (often abbreviated as yo) and means to hook onto the yarn tail that is attached to your ball of yarn with the hook. Your crochet hook should move under the yarn which is why it is called ‘yarn over’ (because the yarn is over the top of your crochet hook), and then the hook should grab onto the yarn from underneath as shown in the image below.
Step Three
Once you’ve hooked onto the yarn, pull the yarn through the loop on your hook as shown below.
And that’s it – this is your first chain stitch! Awesome work!
Now simply repeat these steps:
- Yarn over
- Pull yarn through loop on hook
Once you’ve done this one more time, this is what your 3 chains will look like.
See, totally not as difficult as you expected, I bet!
Keep repeating these steps until you have 10 chains on your hook.
I’ve also created a little video tutorial on creating chain stitches in case you prefer to see these steps live in action.
How to count crochet chain stitches
Now that you understand how to crochet a chain, let’s practice counting chains.
The first thing to point out is the first loop on your hook when you make your slip knot is not counted as a crochet stitch. It is only once you yarn over and pull through that your first chain stitch is created. See the images below for a comparison.
The little V created when you yarn over and pull through indicates the chain stitch being completed.
Here are three images below with different amounts of chain stitches. Can you count how many chains are in each image? Remember to count each ‘V’ as one chain stitch.
Do you remember your answers?
Here are the correct answers.
I hope this mini tutorial has helped you learn how to count your chain stitches.
How to practice crocheting chains
Now at this stage all that’s left for you to do is to keep practicing. To help, I’ve developed three simple exercises for you below so you can keep practicing your chain stitches and challenge your ability.
Exercise one: Read a written pattern
- Complete the foundation chain using the written pattern: Ch 15
- Once you’ve crocheted your chains, remove your hook and pull on the yarn tail that is between your chain and your ball of yarn to undo all of your stitches.
- Repeat this pattern multiple times until you’re confident at reaching 15 chain stitches and counting these stitches.
Exercise two: Read a crochet chart
- Read the crochet chart pattern below
- I’ll give you a hint, this chart says to crochet 11 chain stitches. Can you see how I got to 11?
- Once you’ve completed your 11 chain stitches, remove your hook and pull the yarn tail closest to your crochet hook to undo all of the stitches you’ve just made.
- Repeat this pattern multiple times until you’re confident at reaching 11 chain stitches.
Exercise three: Make up your own and practice, practice, practice
- Decide how many chains you would like to crochet and write this number down
- Make a slip knot
- Crochet this number of chains, counting as you go.
- Once finished, count your crochet chains and see if you’ve crocheted the number you first wrote down.
- Remove your hook, pull the yarn to remove all of your stitches and repeat the exercise as many times as you like until you’re confident crocheting a particular number of chains that you’ve set out for yourself.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial on how to crochet a chain.
If you have any feedback at all for me, I would absolutely love to hear from you. You can reach me by email, or find me on Facebook or Instagram.
I can’t wait to see your chain stitches and if you’d like to share your finished chains with me on social media, I would love to see them! Just tag me at @cillacrochets so I can have a peek.
Remember to check back here for more posts on how to crochet coming soon.
Until next time, happy crocheting,
Cilla x
