Crochet Blog: Tips, Tutorials & Behind-the-Scenes
Stitch tutorials, pattern tips, and behind-the-scenes notes from MapleHookCrochet to help you finish your next handmade crochet project.
Moss stitch crochet is two stitches, alternating, and that’s the whole trick. Single crochet, chain one, repeat. What separates it from plain single crochet is where the hook goes — each stitch drops into a chain space instead of into a stitch below. Do that on every row and the fabric stops looking like stripes.…
Most crochet stitches get you a flat row, then another flat row on top. C2C crochet doesn’t. You start at one corner with a single little block, and the whole piece grows sideways on a diagonal until it’s as wide as you want. Then you shrink it back to a point. A block is three…
A crochet bucket hat is a round-topped hat with straight sides and a brim that tips gently downward. The easiest way to make one is a single crochet spiral, worked from the top down, and that’s exactly what you’ll find here: a flat crown, upright sides, a flared brim, and stitch counts for five sizes…
You open a pattern, scan the first row, and hit “3 tr in next st.” Now you’re stuck wondering what does tr mean in crochet, and whether you’ve been doing it wrong all along. The abbreviation itself is simple. The trouble is that the same two letters point to two different stitches depending on where…
How to crochet ripple stitch really comes down to one repeating row of double crochet. You add stitches to build the peaks, take stitches away to build the valleys, and then repeat that same row until the piece is as long as you want. Chain a multiple of 12 plus 3, and the waves appear…
A crochet strawberry is a small stuffed fruit, worked in one continuous spiral. You start at the tip. It gets wider as you go up. Then a leaf cap goes on top and you embroider some seeds. That’s the whole thing. The stitches are all basics—single crochet, increases, decreases, and a few leaves made from…
Learning how to tr is really just learning the treble crochet stitch. Yarn over twice, put your hook in, pull up a loop, then yarn over and pull through two loops—three times total. That’s the whole stitch. I’ll be honest: the first time someone explained treble crochet to me, my eyes glazed over. Two yarn…
This crochet bunny is a free amigurumi pattern worked in a continuous spiral of single crochet, with increases and decreases doing all the shaping. You’ll make five pieces (a head, a body, two floppy ears, two arms and a tail), sew them together, and embroider a simple face. Worked in worsted yarn with a small…
The half double crochet stitch (HDC) is a basic crochet stitch that creates fabric taller than single crochet but shorter than double crochet. It is a useful choice for blankets, hats, scarves, garments, and other projects where you want a balance of texture, coverage, and drape. Once you understand the yarn-over sequence and where to…
My first crochet basket was a disaster. I used the hook size on the label, crocheted loosely because loose felt natural, and ended up with something closer to a collapsed hat than storage. What fixed it wasn’t a secret stitch. It was density — tight single crochet, thick yarn, and a hook one or two…