Extended Crochet Stitches

For some reason I thought that we'd already looked at Extended stitches. (I've also found them called Alternative stitches and also Elmore stitches.) As I will be using them in the next post now seems like a good time!!

I keep thinking that I'm running out of things to talk about. I thought I would drag out the next post by breaking it in to two. But as I've been investigating in my stitch dictionaries I've got very excited about this simple stitch. (And I've also decided that I haven't got nearly enough stitch dictionaries!)

So what is an Extended stitch?

Quite simply it is any stitch sitting on the shoulders of a chain stitch. Well that's what the symbol looks like. Sometimes a slip stitch might be used instead of a chain stitch.

These symbols both mean Extended Double Crochet (Sc-USA)
 
Whereas this symbol means the Double Crochet is sitting on a slip stitch.

 Any of these symbols could be used to mean Extended Half Treble (Hdc-USA)

There are lots of reasons why you might want to use an Extended Stitch. Here are all the reasons I could find!

To create a slightly taller stitch than usual.

To create a lighter weight fabric with more drape.

To create a stretchy fabric.

To create texture within the fabric.

To throw stitches off at an angle.

For a height comparison, these samples are as follows; Trebles (Dc-USA), Extended Trebles (Ext Dc-USA), Double Trebles (Tr-USA).

 Here is how you make an Extended Treble (Dc):

Yarn over the hook as if you were making a normal Treble crochet, hook into the next stitch, and pull up a loop;

Yarn over hook and pull through one loop only, that's your chain stitch made;

Now complete your treble stitch as normal.

Following on the left is a block of 10sts x 10 rows of Double Crochet (Sc-USA). It's stiff without much drape. On the right the same sized block of Extended Dc.

Now look how stretchy it is.

 Compare here Double Crochet Mesh with Extended Dc Mesh. I hope you can see that the Ext Dc Mesh is a much softer fabric with a more 3D texture.

These are both (Extended) Double Crochet cluster stitches using a slip stitch instead of a chain stitch.

 The symbol looks like this.

The second example is exactly the same but made in Front Loops Only. To be honest I didn't enjoy making the second example but if you'd like to give it a try you'll find it in 'The Ultimate Crochet Stitch Bible'! 

This final example uses Extra Extended Dc Stitches (Sc-USA) to create texture.

To make an Extra Extended Dc stitch you simply make two chain stitches before finishing with a Dc. Because the stitch is taller than those around it, it puffs up and also lies at a slight angle. The stitch pattern is: Row1. Dc,ExExtDc,Dc. Row2. Dc across.

Come back in a fortnight for my favourite stitch in this little stitch family! 

 

HalfTreble with a twist.

If you are feeling a bit bored and find yourself twiddling your thumbs then grab a hook and have a go at this one. 

Did I mention that I'm crochet obsessed?! I wasn't going to blog about this this week. In fact I had a plan for the next month. But I fell over it in my 1981 Batsford Book of Crochet, by Ann Stearns and got entirely distracted.

 You might remember that we looked at a variation of the Double Crochet (SC- USA), in the Humble Dc part 2. Well this HalfTreble (HDC-USA) is very similar in constructuion but the result is much more interesting. So lets play!

We'll start making it in the way the book suggests.   

Let's start with a length of Double Crochet (Sc), then turn and Chain2 to start the new row.

Here's the bit that makes all the difference. Take the yarn in front of the hook, yarn over from front to back. I find it helps to hold the yarn behind your hook with a spare finger.

Put the hook in the next stitch, yarn over normally and pull up a loop.

You now have three loops on the hook like a normal HalfTreble, the only difference being that you wrapped the yarn initialy from front to back.

Yarn over and pull thru all three loops on hook.

Continue to the end of the row.

Alternate rows of Dc and Slanting Htr. (I've just decided to call it that!) I think the front should be the nobbly side.

Here's what it looks like with just Slanting HTr (no Dc) worked to and fro.

 This one is slanting HTr worked from the front only.

Just for the hell of it I thought I'd have a go and see what happened if I did the same thing with a Treble st. (Double crochet-USA)

It's these idiosyncrasies that keep me hooked to crochet! I don't understand how wrapping the yarn the wrong way round the hook can make this much difference. I don't have a very good brain for physics so I don't understand, for instance, why the Earth doesn't fall into the Sun. I've had people wave bits of fruit at me but it's no clearer.😕So there's no chance that I'll ever understand this! Never-the-less I do hope you'll give it a go and get a chance to use it somewhere!!