Brush up on your technique with our simple guide...
crochet UnravelledWithBecky Skuse
One of the reasons we love crochet is because of its versatility – you can create fabrics with so many different looks! If you haven’t heard of the half treble stitch’s ‘third loop’ before, not to worry – it’s really easy to find it and work stitches into it to create all sorts of different stitch patterns. The simplest stitch pattern uses the third loop of htr stitches to create the look of a knitted fabric, with neat little ‘v’ shapes that run horizontally across the fabric. You can make this stitch pattern in rows but it looks best when worked in the round.
With thinner yarns (such as DK, shown here), there’s a gap between the rows of ‘v’ shapes, which creates more of a knitted ‘rib’ look. With chunkier yarns and a larger hook, the gap disappears and the ‘v’ shapes sit right next to each other, as in a knitted stocking stitch. Either way, the fabric has a good amount of stretch and bounces back well. I’ll show you exactly what you need to do to start working htr in the third loop. Let’s hook...
How do I find the third loop?
Here’s how to locate this handy extra strand of yarn...
To find the third loop on a half treble, you need some half treble stitches to examine. So, grab any piece of crochet fabric you’ve got on the go and make some half treble stitches. As a quick reminder, you need to yrh, insert the hook into the next stitch, yrh and pull up a loop, yrh and pull through all three loops. Make at least five htr stitches.
Step 1 Now pick one half treble stitch and locate its top two loops – these are called the front and back loops. Tilt the fabric towards you and you’ll see that further round at the back of the stitch, just beyond the back loop, there’s another strand of yarn – this is called the third loop. You might also see it referred to as the horizontal bar, back bar or lower back loop.
Step 2 You can see the third loop more clearly if you turn the fabric over so that you can see the backs of the stitches. You’ll see that the third loop lies beyond the back loop, running horizontally/diagonally.
The third loop is the yarn strand you need to locate, so that you can work stitches into it. If you need to, place a stitch marker over the third loop so it’s easier to see when you need to insert the hook into it.
How do I make stitches in the third l
