Technique Tuesday - Back Post Double Crochet Tutorial

Technique

Post Stitches – Back Post Double Crochet Stitch

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What is it?

Last week, we started our discussion about post stitches with a brief overview of what a post stitch is. You can find that post here:
Technique Tuesday - Post Stitches: How to make the Front Post Double Crochet stitch.

Let's do a quick review…

Post stitches are just like any other crochet stitches only the stitches are worked around the "post" of a crochet stitch rather than through the loops of the "head" of a crochet stitch.

Click "Read More" link below for the full post.

Here's a hand dandy illustration of the parts of a crochet stitch… in this case, a double crochet stitch.

There are two basic parts:
1. Head
2. Post

(Yes, yes… we know… there are many more parts to a crochet stitch. But these are the only two that count for now…)

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With non-post crochet stitches, we insert our hook into the loops of the head of a crochet stitch.

Note the hook going into the head of the stitch in this photo.

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In the case of post stitches, we are using the spaces between stitches to work our hook around the post of a crochet stitch.

Note the hook going around the post of the stitch in this photo.

NOTE: Since this week is a BACK post stitch, this shows the hook going around the post as for a back post stitch.

While there are both front and back post crochet stitches, today we are working on Back Post crochet stitches. Specifically, we are tackling the Back Post Double Crochet stitch.

Here are the instructions for a Back Post Double Crochet stitch:

Back Post Double Crochet (BPdc): Yarn over, insert hook from back to front and then to the back again around the post of the indicated stitch, yarn over and draw up a loop, (yarn over and draw through 2 loops on hook) 2 times.

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Why Use It?

Why use a post stitch at all? Post Stitches are the SUPERSTARS of texture of the crochet stitch universe. Since a post stitch is worked around the post of the worked stitch, the post of that worked stitch is bent. Because it is perched on top of that bent post, the head of the worked stitch is bent to the outside of the crochet fabric and becomes a raised feature on the surface of the fabric you are creating.

Whether you work a front or back post stitch depends on where you want that surface feature to show in relation to your fabric.

Here's a photo showing a row of Back Post Double Crochet stitches (the lighter colored yarn). This photo shows how the double crochet stitches are worked around the post of the stitch in the row below. You can clearly see the heads of the stitches that were worked around (the darker colored yarn) bending outward to the surface of the crochet fabric.


As with all of our tutorials, we do not block the steps before photography. This way you can see what the stitches look like while they are being worked.

Post stitches can also be worked in combination with other crochet stitches to make raised surface details such as vertical or horizontal ribbing, and cables.

Here are three examples of post stitches used as surface details.

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The first example uses both front and back post stitches to create vertically worked ribbing for the brim of the Boyfriend Beanie from our book Heady Affairs.



Since we are going to be working on crochet ribbing in the very near future, you might want to go back to last week's tutorial and catch up if you missed it:
Post Stitches: How to make the Front Post Double Crochet stitch.

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The second example uses front and back post stitches to create horizontally worked ribbing for the main body of the Side-by-Side hat from our book Heady Affairs.


(pssst… in the next couple of weeks, we are going to be showing you just how to make both of these types of crochet ribbing stitches… check back soon!)

The third example uses front post stitches to create crochet cables as seen here in our Woven Cables Stitch afghan block we created for our free Warm Up America booklet.


Once you have your post stitch mojo working, you can check out these tutorials on how to make the stitches for this afghan block:
Woven Cables Pattern Stitch Part 1: Double Treble Left Cross Crochet Cable

Woven Cables Pattern Stitch Part 2: Double Treble Right Cross Crochet Cable

As you can see… it's all about the texture!

In a future post, we will demonstrate some of the uses for these post stitches so y'all can make FAB textured fabrics for yourselves! Specifically, we are going to be covering Crochet Ribbing… three kinds! Check back soon for that… You don't want to miss it!

For now… let's carry on with the Back Post Double Crochet stitch!

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Break It Down

1. Yarn over,…

Here, we've started working a row of Back Post Double Crochet stitches and we've done the first yarn over just like we would for any other double crochet stitch.

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2. …insert hook from back to front…

See how we are now inserting the hook into the space BETWEEN the crochet stitches from the BACK side of the fabric to the FRONT side of the fabric.

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3. …and then to the back again around the post of the indicated stitch…

Now , working again in the space BETWEEN the stitches, we are bringing the hook through to the BACK of the fabric.

We have worked our hook around the post of the worked stitch.

We flipped the swatch over here to show you a shot of the post of the worked stitch standing out against the hook on the back side of the fabric.

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4. …yarn over…

We are back to working just like any other double crochet stitch.

Hands are making an appearance here so you can see how this yarn over is happening behind the working fabric since that is where the head of our hook is at.

This also shows how your work can look a little twisted at times… and that's totally okay…

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5. …and draw up a loop,…

Draw that loop on your hook back out the way you came around the stitch.


Note: Since this is a Back Post Double Crochet stitch, the working yarn (light colored) is BEHIND the worked row of stitches (darker colored yarn).

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6. …(yarn over and draw through 2 loops on hook) 2 times.

One Back Post Double Crochet stitch completed! WOOHOO!!

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7. And here is the completed row of Back Post Double Crochet stitches.

Note how the stitches are wrapped around the post of the previous row of stitches.

Note again the neat little row of heads from the previous row of stitches facing outward. They look like a raised row of crochet chain stitches on the surface of the fabric.

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8. And here's that photo of the OTHER side of the fabric showing the lighter colored post stitches wrapped around the posts of the darker colored stitches of the previous row. 

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TAADAA!!

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IMPORTANT NOTE: This tutorial is specifically for a post stitch using a double crochet stitch. If you want to do post stitches with taller stitches like treble, double treble, and triple treble crochet stitches, simply yarn over the number of times you would for that height of stitch THEN start with inserting your hook around the post of the stitch.

The first few times you practice this technique, we suggest using two colors of yarn so you can see which stitches go where more easily AND you can compare your work to our tutorial photos more easily.  After that, of course, you'll probably want to work in all one color… or not… it depends on how you are going to use them. Right?

As with any new skill, all it takes is practice for new techniques to feel natural and easy for you.

As always, we recommend stitching up a few quick swatches like ours and, using our photo walk through to compare your stitches, to make sure your stitches are lining up correctly. If you aren't happy, rip 'em back out and go again!

Thanks for dropping by for another Technique Tuesday! We appreciate the comments y'all have left for us on here and on social media and we're happy to know we could help.

Let us hear from you in the comments section below to let us know what techniques you'd like to learn and maybe we'll feature yours in a future Technique Tuesday.

Be sure to catch up on all of our FREE Technique Tuesday tutorials by Shibaguyz Designz right here on our blog.

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