Technique Tuesday - Front Post Double Crochet Tutorial

How to Make the Front Post Double Crochet Stitch

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Technique

Post Stitches – Front Post Double Crochet Stitch

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What is it?

Let's talk briefly about what a Post Stitch is…

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.

For your wonder and amazement, here's a hand dandy illustration of the parts of a crochet stitch… in this case, a double crochet stitch. You can see the POST of the stitch and the HEAD of the stitch.

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.

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

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.    

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

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

Front Post Double Crochet (Fpdc): Yarn over, insert hook from front to back and then to front again around post of 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? Well, you see, it's all about the texture! Remember that a post stitch is worked around the post of the stitch. Working around the post like this bends the post of the stitch you are working into so the head of that worked stitch is faced toward the outside of the crochet fabric.

In all other crochet stitches, we make our stitch by inserting our hook through the head of the worked stitch and the head is covered by the loops of the stitch we just made.

With post stitches, since we are working around the post of the worked stitch, 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.

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 Front 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.

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:

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

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 crochet pattern book Heady Affairs.    

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

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

Post stitches create FAB surface detail that pops out in 3-D against the crochet fabric.

We will delve further into post stitches in upcoming posts… specifically, we will address back post stitches. After that, we will demonstrate some of the uses for these post stitches so y'all can make FAB textured fabrics for yourselves!

For now… onward to the Front Post Double Crochet stitch!

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Break It Down

1. Yarn over,…

Here, we've started working a row of Front 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 front to back…

See how we are now inserting the hook into the space between the crochet stitches from the front side of the fabric to the back side of the fabric.

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

Now , working again in the space between the stitches, we are bringing the hook back to the front of the fabric.

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

This is a great shot of the post of the worked stitch standing out against the hook.

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4. …yarn over…

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

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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.

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

One Front Post Double Crochet stitch completed! WOOHOO!!

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

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

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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. Note again the neat little row of heads from the previous row of stitches facing outward.

Since the heads of the stitches are bent outward, they look like a row of crochet chain stitches on the surface of the fabric.

TAADAA!!

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!

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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!

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