Crochet is an extremely versatile craft. You can make so many things with some yarn and a hook.
Often though, the crochet that we see represented on screens and in publications has a retro, vintage or granny aesthetic to it. This absolutely deserves its spotlight! However…
I firmly believe that crochet can also be elegant, soft, drapey and refined. Nothing makes me happier than when I hear this about one of my designs “that’s crochet???”
Since I first put hook to yarn, elegant, sophisticated crochet is what I have been striving for. So believe me when I tell you this blog post has been over ten years in the making and I have distilled ‘How To Refine Your Crochet’ into 7 main points (yes I have more but you have to stop somewhere)!
Here are my 7 Ways to Refine Your Crochet:
I have also recorded this blog post as a video.
1 – Simple Techniques For Flawless Finishes
When you first learn to crochet, certain techniques are always taught because they are constantly referred to in patterns. This makes sense – as a new crocheter you are being set up with solid foundations to start your crochet journey on.
The thing is that there are better techniques that will create a much neater finish for your crochet projects. The two main ones I encourage you to use going forward are:
Back Bumps of Foundation Chains
Patterns often don’t specify which part of the foundation chain to work into. I suspect that most people are taught to place the hook under the front and back loops of the chain.
You can make one simple change to create a really neat edge to your work. All you have to do is flip your foundation chain upside down and work each stitch underneath the back bump (also referred to as the third loop) instead.
This incredibly small change means that the front and back loops of the chain present themselves as a really neat edge to your work rather than being hidden with the stitch.
If you are adding a border or seaming up the foundation chain, it is SO MUCH EASIER to know what is a stitch.
For more guidance on working into foundation chain back bumps/ third loops I have a video tutorial here OR a photo tutorial here.
Starting Stitches Instead of Turning Chains
If there is just one tip you walk away with from this whole blog post, please let it be this one.
DITCH THE TURNING CHAIN!
Instead, try using starting stitches. They are a neater alternative for turning chains for so many reasons:
- They create a thicker first stitch which is more substantial.
- The thicker stitch stops the big hole from forming on the edge of your work.
- The top of the stitch is really easy to work back into.
- No confusion with stitch counts. You use a starting stitch and mark it as your first and simply work into the next stitch.
- The edges of your fabric (if working in rows) are much neater.
- You can even use them to join rounds and create the first stitch of the round!
I use starting stitches in the vast majority of my patterns and have created starting stitch tutorials for double, extended double, half treble and treble crochet. If your pattern uses something like a Herringbone Treble, I would still swap out the turning chains for a Starting Treble Stitch – always!
Here are my Starting Stitch Tutorials for you to take a look at:
- Starting Double Crochet (Starting Single Crochet US) is here as a video tutorial OR here as a photo tutorial.
- Starting Extended Double Crochet (US Starting Extended Single Crochet) is here as a video tutorial, OR here as a photo tutorial.
- Starting Half Treble (Starting Half Double Crochet US) is here as a video tutorial, OR here as a photo tutorial.
- Starting Treble (Starting Double Crochet US) is here as a video tutorial, OR here as a photo tutorial.
You can also use starting stitches to join the last stitch and first stitch of a round rather than the traditional method of joining with a slip stitch.
The image below shows a swatch where I have used this method and the accompanying chart so you can see exactly where the Starting Half Treble Crochets are placed to join each round.
2 – Stitch Choice Is Everything
I think that creating drape and a flatter, less dense fabric are essential elements of refining crochet. All too often, I am told that crochet is dense and rigid. Whilst these are great attributes for the likes of amigurumi and crocheted bags, I don’t want to be sat under a dense blanket or wear a rigid shawl.
Good news though, crochet absolutely doesn’t have to be that way.
Sometimes, not always, but sometimes you can do a simple stitch substitution to completely elevate the fabric you are crocheting. Just remember that stitches look completely different in rows compared to rounds, so swatching may be essential.
My absolute favourite stitches to use in designs are linen stitch (also called tweed, granite or moss stitch), herringbone stitches, waistcoat stitch, extended double crochet and double slip stitch.
Here are links to stitch tutorials:
- Herringbone Half Treble Crochet (US Herringbone Half Double) is here as a video tutorial, OR here as a photo tutorial.
- Herringbone Treble Crochet (US Herringbone Double) is here as a video tutorial, OR here as a photo tutorial.
- Waistcoat stitch is here as a video tutorial, OR here as a photo tutorial.
- Extended Double Crochet (US Extended Single) is here as a video tutorial, OR here as a photo tutorial.
- Double Slip Stitch is here as a video tutorial, OR here as a photo tutorial.
3 – Yarn Blend
This is one of the easiest changes you can make to refine your crochet. Using a yarn blend with something special helps the stitches to relax and become a little more fluid and drapey, soft or shiny.
The images above show my Doppio Colosseum Shawl. Not only is it crocheted with linen stitch (refined crochet winner), but the yarn is also a 50% merino/ 50% silk blend from Helen at The Wool Kitchen.
When wool is blended with fibres such as alpaca, silk, linen, bamboo, lyocell, rose, cashmere, yak, camel, or possum, it instantly elevates the resulting fabric.
Some of these fibres (silk, bamboo, alpaca, rose, lyocell) will bring a shimmer and smoothness to the yarn, giving drape and an iridescence that screams elegance.
Other fibres such as cashmere, yak, camel and possum have a very subtle, soft halo to them. I can spot a cashmere jumper in a charity shop without touching it, and these fibres blended with wool (or on their own) have the same effect. The quality and softness is evident and it will shine through your finished project.
Linen is a little different. I wouldn’t say it is particularly soft, but depending on how it has been manufactured, a linen blend yarn can be slubby and create a woven look to your crocheted fabric. Also, if the linen blend yarn is from a yarn dyer, often the linen doesn’t take dye in the same way as the wool content, leaving you with soft colour changes that you don’t get with commercial yarns.
One final note on yarn blends is that much of the above can also be achieved by holding a yarn double with a lace weight floof such as mohair silk or alpaca silk. Most yarn companies now have a floof option and holding yarns double is here to stay. If you need some floof options, take a look at my blog post “Floof Yarn List”.
TOP TIP – If you have a yarn you aren’t that fond of or want to make a little softer, holding it with floof will do the job. Floof does something amazing to crochet stitches. Instead of stitches that are really rigid and prominent, they just get a little fuzzy and blended – a bit like adding a soft filter onto your camera lens.
4 – Use High Twist Yarns
The vast majority of yarns on the market have been manufactured as a S twist yarn. Without getting overly technical, if you are a right-handed crocheter, when you make stitches you are removing some of the twist in the yarn.
If you are a left-handed crocheter, you are going to be adding twist into each and every stitch and you can therefore afford to try crocheting with yarns that have less twist in them.
I am a right-handed crocheter and can assure you that the stitch definition you can achieve with a hight twist yarn will knock the socks off anything with a low twist. Also, I find that yarns with a low twist often split when I try to put my hook through stitches – it is very frustrating!
The image above shows Positivity Spiral Jumper that I am currently designing. It is made in my all time favourite yarn – Yarnadelic Sport Weight by John Arbon Textiles.
Why do I love it so much? The wool is worsted spun 100% Corridale, so warm with a slight halo, but mainly it’s the really high twist. It make the stitches POP!
5 – Yarn Weight
This one might feel controversial to some. Most people have a favourite yarn weight to work with. Mine is 4ply and for good reason.
In my humble opinion, as soon as you start going above sport weight yarns in crochet, you lose some of the elegance, especially in garments and shawls. This doesn’t mean that I don’t make garments and shawls from DK or worsted weight yarns. When I do, I also make sure that my yarn blend and colour and the stitch pattern are helping to refine the finished piece, not add to the bulk of the piece.
Here is a good example with my Positivity Spiral Cowl. I have written this pattern so that it works from chunky yarn down to a heavy lace weight.
Top left is an alpaca silk blend in heavy lace weight – it’s like wearing a cloud and the stitches look gorgeous!
Top right is an alpaca silk blend in DK – gorgeous shine!
Bottom is a wool blend in aran weight – I love it too, but…
The one that looks the most refined is the lace weight cowl with the smaller stitches. So, when I use heavier weight yarns, I pay extra attention to the other elements of techniques to use, stitches, yarn blend and yarn colour.
6 – Variegated Yarns & Colour Pooling
Hmmm, if I am being totally honest, colour pooling gives me the ick! I associate the pooled blocks of colour with old school crochet and it makes me sad.
It can be really difficult to ‘read’ a skein of yarn in a yarn shop or at a yarn show, to know how it is going to crochet up. Luckily, I have a solution for you and it’s really easy.
Take a look at the cake of yarn below. It looked very similar when it was in the skein and you could be forgiven for thinking that there is no way that it would colour pool.
However, although the skein is made up of many shades of green and brown, there are 30cm stretches within the skein that just read as ‘dark’, especially from further away. Take a look at my swatch.
The swatch moves from double crochet at the bottom to half trebles in the middle, then trebles at the top.
The smaller the stitch, the more stitches created in the parts that read ‘dark’. So, the colour pooling is more obvious for double crochet than it is with treble crochet.
So, if you know how many cm a stitch requires to crochet, you know what you are looking for in a skein.
As examples:
- 4ply yarn with a 3mm hook will need approximately 3.5cm of yarn to make one double crochet, 4.5cm to make one half treble crochet and 6.5cm to make one treble crochet. So, when I am buying variegated 4ply yarn, I look for obvious colour changes that are 5cm or less.
- DK yarn with a 4.5mm hook will need approximately 5cm of yarn to make one double crochet, 7cm to make one half treble crochet and 9cm to make one treble crochet. So, when I am buying variegated 4ply yarn, I look for obvious colour changes that are 7cm or less.
I have a whole deep dive blog post on this topic. So if you want to learn more or the instructions to make your own calculations, click here for ‘Predicting How Variegated Yarn Will Work Up‘.
7 – Choosing Colours
You can follow all of my advice above about refining crochet through techniques, stitches and yarn blends, but if your colour choice isn’t right that crocheted item is unlikely to see the light of day.
Wearing the right colour can light you up! Having your favourite colours around your home brings nothing but joy. Clashing colours can create the most glorious crocheted items and be refined.
Having worked enough yarn shows in my time, I know that people lack colour confidence. At every show I work, I help people choose colours for their latest project.
The good news is that colour theory can be learned and it’s easier than you think. Again, this is a deep dive topic and I have covered it here in my “Tips For Choosing Yarn Colours” blog post.
TOP TIP – If you aren’t going to read that blog post and want to make garments, there is one colour that suits almost every skin tone. Aubergine is always a safe yarn colour choice because it has warm red tones and cool blue tones within it.
That Was A Lot
Okay, that was a lot of information with lots of side quests for you into each of the 7 Ways to Refine Your Crochet.
I sincerely hope you found the post useful and that I am helping you to bring a little extra something to your crochet. Let me know in the comments below or over at the Brew From The Bothy Podcast on YouTube.
It is an elegant craft. Crochet can be made into a gorgeous, drapey fabric. I’ll continue to push refined crochet and if you have read this far, I hope you are too?
Let’s Be Social
I am usually found in these online places, or you can join my newsletter where I talk about all things yarn, crochet and knitting:
Pinterest – FayDHDesigns
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