Hello, Crafter. Welcome to my channel. It’s Amanda here, and you are watching Crafters Autonomous. So today I am going to be bringing you five crochet hacks. And these are hacks that actually work, and I use them all the time. And even if you’ve been crocheting for a while, there’s still a chance you haven’t come across these. So I’m really excited to be bringing you this little compilation here. So let’s get into it. My first hack is for when you’re starting a project. Most projects start with a chain, and typically what we do, let’s say were working this in single crochet, and I would skip a stitch, go to my second chain, and I’d work in kind of the side of this chain and work all the way down. That’s a pretty standard way of starting a project.

But if we look at our stitching along the top, we have these nice, pretty V’s. It looks very even, but along the bottom edge, we have this kind of little rib along the bottom, but then the very base of it just looks kind of different than the nice finished edge of our top. So the first hack is instead of working in the side of your chain and is to work in the back nub of the chain stitch. And this is actually borrowed from Tunisian crochet. This is pretty common with that. But a lot of times people don’t think to apply this to just traditional crochet. So here’s the front of our chain, and then along the back we have these little nubs. So that’s where we’re going to insert our hook.

So again, we’re going to skip our first chain, go to our second chain, which is right here, and we’re going to look for that little nub there on the back, and that’s where we’re going to insert to work our stitch right underneath there. And I’m just working single crochet stitches. And again, normally we would work underneath here, but for this hack, we’re going to work in that nub on the back, so this spot right here and work my stitch. Going to work this all the way down. And then I’ll show you how this turns out a little different than the normal way we start crochet. So here I’ve worked that first row.

We have the nice, pretty, even Vs along the top, and then on the underside, we also have the nice, pretty, even Vs. And that’s because it’s the front side of the chain that we worked and we worked in the back nubs. So here I’ve worked a couple more rows of single crochet just so that my project isn’t curling so much. You can see this a little better. But again, here’s the top and here’s the bottom, and look at how nicely they match. I think it really gives that beginning of the project such a nice finish, and it doesn’t take much extra effort other than just working in a different spot of our chain stitch. Now, as great as hack number one is, sometimes those foundation chains can be super annoying, especially if you’re working on a large project.

It’s really easy to lose track of how many chains you’ve done, and then you go all the way back across your row in your stitching and you get to the end only to realize you did too many or too few. So the hack number two is going to be the foundation double crochet. Foundation single crochet. Basically, the foundation stitch. And what foundation stitches do is they allow us to work our stitch. So if we’re working a foundation single crochet, it allows us to work single crochet without having to work a foundation chain. This is also sometimes called foundationless. I’ve kind of come across it called both foundation double crochet and foundationless double crochet, essentially the same thing. It’s a way to work the stitch without doing a foundation chain. To start, I have a whole video that breaks this down for double crochet.

I’ll link it up there, but I’ll walk through how to do the foundationless single crochet. So I’ve got a slip knot on my hook, and I’m going to start by chaining two, so one and then two, and then I’m going to go to the second chain from my hook, going to insert yarn over and pull up a loop. Now, at this point, I’m going to work kind of like a normal single crochet. So it’s as if I’ve already inserted my hook. I’m going to yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through two to complete a single crochet. So that’s my first stitch. I worked a single crochet without needing to do a chain stitch beneath it. Let’s go ahead and add another one.

So I’m going to go to the base of the single crochet I just worked, and I’m going to go under this strand, and I’m also going to go underneath that other strand underneath there. So basically, I’m going under the two strands on the Bottom, I’m going to yarn over and pull up a loop. Then I’m going to yarn over, pull through one, yarn over, pull through two. And that completes my second single crochet to work. My third foundationless single crochet, I’m going to insert at the base of the stitch I just worked. If we look from the underside, it’s kind of this backwards V shape. And I’ll go right under there, under both those strands with my hook. Yarn over and pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through one, yarn over, pull through two.

So it’s essentially worked the same way as a normal single crochet stitches, and just we’re inserting somewhere different. So we’re inserting in the base of the previous stitch, and we’re going to also do this extra yarn over and pull up a loop. Once we do that, we finish it off the same way as a normal single crochet, where we yarn over, pull through one, yarn over, pull through two. And as we keep working it along, we will create a row of single crochet stitches without having to do a foundation chain. So here I’ve worked a nice row of foundational single crochet. I’m going to work a few more rows of single crochet on top of it, just like normal, and I’ll show you how this looks if it were part of a larger project. So here I’ve worked a few more rows.

This is what the base of it will look like. The base of it will kind of have this little side V along one of the edges, and that’s from doing that extra yarn over. That’s kind of the chain that we ended up working in there without actually having to do a chain separately. But I think it gives it a really nice finished edge. And. And the other thing is, it’s a little stretchier than a chain stitch, so it’s about the same stretchiness as the rest of your project. So that’s really great. If you’re working on, say, a garment where you don’t want the cuff or the hem to be super tight from chain stitches, this is a great way to keep it evenly stretchy with the rest of your project. Hack number three is to use multiple strands at once when you are crocheting.

Now, this has several different applications. One instance where this is helpful is let’s say you have a really large hook. This is, I believe this is either a size P or a size Q hook. I’m not exactly sure which size it is, but if we take a rough measurement of the diameter, which is how crochet hooks are measured, we can see that it’s over 10cm wide. So you may have a hook that’s very large, but you might not want to go buy the chunky yarn to crochet with it, because sometimes the chunky yarn can run very expensive. But let’s say you have six, several other smaller strands of yarn lying around leftover, and you want to crochet with them. Well, you can use the large hook and crochet with all three strands at once.

So really, all there is to it is to have my three strands of yarn feeding off all at once. I’ll make a slip knot with all three strands at once, insert my hook, and start crocheting. So I’m starting here with just a foundation chain. And if you start with the foundation chain and just make a chain with multiple strands of yarn, this is a super simple way to make drawstrings. If you’re making a drawstring bag, or also to make handles for a bag, or using our first hack, we can start crocheting in rows back and forth in the back nubs. And this is a great way to make a scrap blanket. It’ll turn out super thick and cozy, chunky. It’ll be very colorful.

And once you run out of one color, you just throw in a new color and introduce it as the new strand. So if we look at my yarn here, probably yellow would run out first. The green’s gonna outlast them both. But once the yellow runs out, I can just add in a new color for the yellow and keep going. Once the blue runs out, add in a new color and keep going, and it’ll create a really fun color transition as we go along. So I’ve worked a few more rows here, and if we look at it, this is super thick, super plush, super chunky. And so using multiple strands like this at once, like I said, it would make for a great scrap blanket. And the other advantage of this is it works up super fast because the stitches are so large.

You could also use this as a pillow cover, or you can even make a super cozy, colorful floor rug with this technique. But you don’t have to stop here with this. Heck, if we work this in the round, because the yarn is so chunky, we can make some fairly stiff and sturdy storage baskets. So here I’ve started crocheting in the round. In my first round, I did six single crochet, and then for my next round, I’m doing two single crochet in each of My stitches from before, and I’m just spiraling it around. My next round, I would do two single crochet, one single crochet, two single crochet, one single crochet all the way around. And keep building my circle bigger. And then once I got the size I wanted, I would just crochet evenly around to build the sides of my basket.

So this is obviously a very mini version, but you kind of get the idea with this where I made a circle and then I’m just working evenly up the sides, working around in a spiral, and I’m making a little basket here. Now, of course, you can make this bigger as a more practical storage solution. And personally, I love making chunky crochet baskets because they’re great for storing yarn or clothing or towels, whatever you need to store and get out of the way. The chunky yarn is a great idea for making these types of baskets.

So another instance where working with multiple strands of yarn might come in handy is a project where you’re doing some kind of buffalo or gingham plaid, where you need kind of an in between color, or you’re working on a project with where you want to blend the colors together, in a sense. And one way to achieve that is to just have two colors of yarn and use two strands of the same in one section, a strand of each color in the middle, and then two strands of the other color in the next section. Now, of course, you could do a green because technically the color between yellow and blue would be like a green. But we’re talking more for the instance where you want more of an in between fade in, not necessarily the two colors mixed together.

So in this case, I have a yellow and blue here. And if I went to the store, I probably wouldn’t be able to find anything that looks exactly like this. However, by using one strand of each color for the middle section, I get a perfect blend in between my two sections. And so again, you could repeat the same process if you want to make a project that’s like buffalo plaid or a gingham texture. Now, I’m not fully breaking that down because that would involve a lot more little bobbins and tails of yarn. So I’m not. I’m not showing that here, but if you do want to see that, leave me a comment and let me know if that’s a video you all would be interested in. And maybe I can make that one day.

But by using multiple strands of yarn, we’re able to blend these colors together. One last instance where working with Multiple strands of yarn at the same time can be so helpful, is when you’re working with yarn that is difficult to work with. And usually what makes yarn difficult to work with is it’s difficult to see the stitches. So, for example, yarn like this, there’s stitches in it. This is crochet. If you stretch it apart, you can kind of see the stitches in there, but you really can’t tell where you need to work. And when this was in the process of being made, it was really hard to see where to work. And that’s why the end is, like, way thicker than up here, because it’s easy to gain stitches or lose stitches.

But when you’re working with a yarn like this, another such yarn is lion brand’s homespun yarn. Now, personally, I absolutely love this yarn. I’ll link to my review of it up there. But a lot of people don’t like this Yarn. And probably nine times out of 10, when someone doesn’t like this yarn, it’s because they have a hard time seeing their stitching with the yarn, because this yarn is kind of fluffy. So there’s not as much definition to the stitches. But if we combine a yarn like this or a yarn like the homespun, with a strand of just stitch, standard yarn, some kind of, you know, acrylic type yarn, it becomes a lot easier to see the stitching. So I’m going to work up a little test sample here, and you’ll be able to see how much easier it is to see the stitching.

So here I have worked a row with the homespun yarn and just my basic acrylic yarn. And here you can see a lot more easily where the tops of stitches are. So when I go to work my second row, I can easily see that. Oh, right here. This is my first stitch. Okay, where does my next stitch need to go? Right here. I can clearly see it because that strand of yarn adds just some greater clarity and more definition to each of the stitches. So it’s a lot easier to see where I need to work, even though I have the fuzzy, fluffier yarn in there. So this is working it without that extra strand of yarn. And when I go to row two, and I’m trying to figure out where to work, it’s a little harder to tell, do I need to go here?

Do I need to go here? Where’s my first stitch? Stitch. Now, personally, I’ve worked with the homespun yarn enough, so at this point, I don’t have a hard time figuring out where My stitches need to go. But if you are one of those people who really struggles with using homespun yarn, because you can never tell where you need to insert your hook, you don’t need to throw the yarn away. Just grab another skein of yarn and combine it with the homespun yarn and you’ll easily be able to see where you need to work your stitches because this has a lot more clarity and definition than this does. And as an added bonus, if you do need to unravel a project using the homespun in another strand, it unravels a little bit easier than homespun does on its own.

Hack number four is for when we’re working a project in the round. So I’ve just made this little kind of bowl shaped project here and let’s say I were done with this. So I’ve joined my round with a slip stitch and just like normal, I’ll pull up a loop and fasten off. Now I’m going to leave this really long so we can do our hack, but I’m going to show you how it normally looks first. So when we look at the edge on the right hand side, we have all these nice V shapes. On the left side we have all these nice tops of stitches. But then bam, there is where we fastened off. It’s very obvious and doesn’t blend in with our other stitching. So this is a hack to blend this in with the rest of our edging.

So there’s a couple different ways to do this. Personally, I like to start by fastening off like normal because I find it just really holds the best and is least likely to unravel. So then once we fastened off, we want to make sure we leave a plenty long tail. And last of all, you may also find a tapestry needle helpful or you can use the crochet hook to pull the thread through. I like to thread it onto my tapestry needle because then I can just do it all in one go and not have to think about, wait, which way do I need to go? Do I need to go that way? This way? So I’m going to thread that on here. So to start we’re going to go to the right one spot and find a nice clean V stitch.

So we’re not going to do that one right there at the base because it has the knot already on top of it. We’re going to go back one and we’re going to come from the underside of that stitch and up between the two threads of the V stitch and I’m going to pull my yarn right through there. Then I’m going to skip where the knot is and skip this little stitch here and go to my next large normal size V stitch top. So see how this is a little tighter and smaller. We’re going to go to the next one and I’m going to take my needle and I’m going to thread it underneath from inside to outside.

So I’m coming towards it with the needle and go underneath both strands of that V stitch there and just pull this gently to finish it all off. I’m going to go down through the spot where I came up. So see how we have this yarn piece coming up through this V stitch right here. Then I go down through that and once I do that, if I need to, I can tug on it and tighten it up a little bit, but it blends it right in. So then all that’s left to do is to feed this tail piece down through my stitching and hide it in my project. And when you’re doing this part, be mindful of how tight you’re pulling this, because if you pull it too tight, it’s going to be obvious that, wait, something different is going on.

So just play around with how much tension you really need to leave in that piece to get it to blend in really well. But if we look at the edge of our project, it’s not obvious where we joined the round. Now, if were to really study this, you could probably figure out where it’s at. So we can see it right there. That’s not quite as even as the others, but for the most part it blends right in and is barely noticeable. You have to really focus on it if you wanted to find it. And it creates a really smooth finish to the edge of our project. So looking at the top down, you really can’t tell where that join is. So this is a great little hack to get a really clean finish to your projects. Worked in the round.

Alright, it’s time for our fifth and final hack. And I like to think of this one as being in line with our second hack. And in the second hack we essentially got rid of the need for a foundation chain, while in this one we are going to get rid of the need for a turning chain. And the fifth and final hack is the alternative turning chain. Now, I have a whole entire video detailing the stitch in greater detail. You can click the card up there, but I will walk you through it here as well and show you how it works. Because this hack is probably one of my favorites and I’M at the point where I almost never do a turning chain anymore. That’s how much I like this hack.

So in this video, I’m going to show how to work the alternative turning chain. When we get to the second row, I’m not going to show how to work it into the foundation chain. And that is because you don’t necessarily need to work it the first row if you do the foundationless double crochet stitches. But you would essentially do what I’m going to show you here, just in the second chain from hook. However, I think it’s a little clearer to see when we’re working on the second row. So that’s how I’m going to show it in this video. So here I’ve worked my first row And I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 stitches across. And now I’m ready to work on my second row.

Now, normally what I would do is I would chain one, two, or maybe three, depending on how tight your stitches are. Then if I wanted that to count as my first stitch, I would skip right here, go to the next spot and work my double crochet, and keep working across and letting that turning chain count as my first double crochet. Now, when you do that, this stitch looks very different from the rest of the stitches, and you can get a little bit of gaping right in here. The other option that is used traditionally in crochet is instead of letting this turning chain count as a stitch and is it just creates a little bump on the side, and we work a double crochet in the very first spot and we work double crochet all the way down our row.

And this option is nice enough and all, and you don’t really get the gap like we did if we let the turning chain count as a stitch, but we do get a little bump on the side. And what if we’re working a project where we want the edge to be straight and we don’t want the bump, but we also don’t want the space of the turning chain? Well, that’s where this alternative turning chain stitch comes into play. So we’re going to go back to the end of row one. And now it’s time to learn the alternative turning chain. I’m going to teach this to a height of 2, which is the height we use for double crochet. So I’m going to start by turning my work.

Once I’ve turned my work, I’m going to insert my hook into the first stitch of row one, yarn over and pull up a loop So I have the loop that was on my hook at the end of the last round, and. And then I just pulled up this loop here. Then I’m going to yarn over and pull through two. So it’s almost like we worked a single crochet stitch without doing a chain one first. So this is to a height of one. We want to bring it to a height of two by essentially working a single crochet stitch underneath this post here. So to do this, I’m going to insert underneath that post from right to left, yarn over, pull up a loop. Then I’ve got these two loops on my hook and I will yarn over and pull through two.

And that is how you do the alternative turning chain. So it’s essentially two single crochets stacked up, and it creates this nice wider stitch that’s wider than just a turning chain. So it fills it in a little bit more, but it still keeps it even on the edge. So then I will just work the rest of the row with double crochet stitches and our row will end up like this. So let me show that to you one more time. And of course, if you want to see this more in depth, go check out the video I mentioned in the cards. So, one more time, though. In this video, we will start by turning our work and essentially we’re going to work a single crochet in the first stitch without doing any chains to start.

So we’re going to insert our hook into the first stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through two. So that’s to a height of one. To bring it to a height of two. For a double crochet, we’re going to insert underneath that left vertical bar of the stitch we just completed. Yarn over, pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through two. And that’s the alternative turning chain. And then I can work my double crochet stitches across just like normal, and my piece will work up like this. So as you can see, the edges here are very straight. We’ve got the alternative turning chain here from row two, alternative turning chain from row three. Right there. And then just double crochet stitches everywhere else, like normal. The alternative turning chain can also be used in the round.

So if you’re joining your rounds versus spiraling, normally we have to do some chains to get up to the correct height and then work our stitches around. But instead of doing the chains and then your stitching, you can straight up just start with the alternative turning chain to make it the right height for your row. And. And then work all around your stitches but those are my five crochet hacks that I use all the time and I really like these because they both solve some issues that we may encounter when we crochet and they’re just so helpful on so many different projects. Now if you enjoyed this video I need you to do two things for me. Well actually three.

First you’re going to start by subscribing but that’s just kind of obvious but secondly you’re going to click the like button so that way I know this video helped you. And you’re also going to leave me a comment down below letting me know which hack is your favorite. I want to know which one of these is the most crochet life changing for you. Some of these have been really impactful with my own crochet and I’m really excited for these to be able to help you all as well. But thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you in my next video. Happy crafting.