How to Crochet a Single Crochet Edge

The thinner the needle or yarn, or the denser the piece’s stitches, the smaller the work’s gauge.

Crocheting an edge onto a knitted or crocheted piece of work gives the piece a more finished look while maintaining its elasticity. A single crocheted edge is denser than one that is double or triple crocheted, but the instructions for edging a knit or crocheted piece using any crochet stitch are otherwise similar. The most complex part of adding a single crocheted edge to a piece is matching the gauge of the edge to the gauge of the piece closely enough that the edge doesn’t crinkle or pucker the piece. As you add the edge, adjust for the differences in gauge by skipping stitches in the piece or adding crocheted stitches.

Instructions

1. Find the stitch in the top right corner of the piece you want to edge. Poke your crochet hook through that stitch and pull a loop of the stitch’s yarn onto the hook.

2. Slide the loop further down the crochet hook’s shaft and lay the feeder yarn over the shaft closer to the crochet hook’s hook. Pull the feeder yarn through the slipknot, using the hook of the crochet hook.

3. Poke the crochet hook through the stitch directly to the left of the stitch at the top right corner of the piece you’re edging and pull a loop of yarn from that stitch onto the crochet hook. Slide both the loops now on the hook further down the hook’s shaft and lay the feeder yarn over the shaft so it’s closest to the throat of the hook. Pull the feeder yarn through both the loops on the shaft, using the hook. Push the loops off the hook so only the loop you just made from the feeder yarn remains — that’s the first single crochet stitch of the edge.

4. Repeat the process of poking through the next stitch to the right of the piece you’re edging, pulling a loop of that yarn onto the hook, and running the feeder yarn through both it and the previous crochet stitch. Stop when you reach a corner.

5. Stitch three single crochet stitches at the corner, unconnected to any stitch on the piece you’re edging. Continue the process of poking through the first stitch on the new edge, pulling a loop of yarn onto the hook’s shaft, placing the feeder yarn over the hook’s throat, pulling it through the stitch’s loop and adding three single crochet stitches at the corners, until the piece is edged.

6. Work more single rounds of crochet until the edging is the length desired, continuing to add three stitches at the corners. Finish and cut off the excess yarn when the edging is the desired length.

References

• Subversive Knitting; Single Crochet Edging; April 2007
• The Art of Crochet by Teresa: Single Crochet Edging
• Dummies.com; How to Yarn Over Crochet; Susan Brittain, et al.