We have essentially five techniques: spiral, stepped spiral, standard joined rounds (plus 6 variations), progressive joined rounds (plus 1 variation), and unjoined rounds (plus 1 variation). These are all cases without turning between rounds. I want to acknowledge Crochet Spot, Cre8tion Crochet, and Crochet Ever After for giving or inspiring many of these variations.

The samples are numbered by the order in which I stitched them, which is not quite the order in which they appear in the categories. I didn’t want to change the labels when I reorganized because it seemed likely I might mix some up.

Here’s the punch line: use spiral crochet for patterns that call for it. For patterns calling for you to join with a slip stitch in the first stitch of the round, chain 1, and then begin the next round in the same stitch you slip stitched into, make a slight variation: after slip stitching, hold the yarn against the hook with your thumb and pull upward to tighten the slip stitch (method 9 below). Make everything else at standard tension.

To compare, I looked at ease of stitching, seam line, biasing of stitches, the back side, and whether the end of a round aligned vertically with the beginning. The punch line is that when you can use a spiral, do. If there are features that have to be lined up, you may have to use a spiral, because it biases slightly backward (each round starts slightly earlier than the previous one), and there is no other technique that does so. There are techniques that bias forward, by starting each round in the second stitch of the previous; I call most of those “progressive.” They are interchangeable with each other but not with the spiral or techniques with no bias. Most of the techniques below do not bias either direction; they are all based on standard joined rounds. The gory details are after the jump.

Sample number: 1
Description: Standard spiral.

Difficulty: easy
Seam: none
Bias: backward
Back: as nice as front
Alignment: significant jog at end

Notes: Easy, standard, may need this if the biasing is accounted for in the design.

Sample number: 2
Description: Stepped spiral: slip stitch at end of round, do not chain up; next round starts in second stitch of previous round and ends in slip stitch.

Difficulty: easy
Seam: minor
Bias: forward
Back: as nice as front
Alignment: mild jog at end

Sample number: 3
Description: Standard joined rounds: slip stitch into first single crochet of round, chain 1, and begin round in same stitch as slip stitch; skip slip stitch at end.

Difficulty: fairly easy; must take care starting round in correct stitch and counting
Seam: strong; long horizontal strands show
Bias: none
Back: arguably nicer than front
Alignment: no jog at end

Sample number: 4
Description: Almost standard joined rounds: as 3 but slip stitch made in back loop only of stitch.

Difficulty: medium; slip stitch distorts first stitch of previous round
Seam: strong; long horizontal strands; no better than 3
Bias: none
Back: as nice as front
Alignment: no jog at end

Sample number: 5
Description: Almost standard joined rounds: as 3 but slip stitch made in vertical strand behind first stitch of round.

Difficulty: hard; those strands are tight and using them tightens the first two stitches of the previous round
Seam: less visible than 3 but stiff
Bias: none
Back: strandy
Alignment: no jog at end

Sample number: 6
Description: Almost standard joined rounds: as 3 but slip stitch in back loop of first single crochet plus the horizontal strand immediately under that loop on the back of the stitch.

Difficulty: more than 4, less than 5: must separate the strands again for the first stitch of the round
Seam: different from 3 but similar level of visibility
Bias: none
Back: …awkward-looking
Alignment: no jog at end

Sample number: 8
Description: Almost standard joined rounds, but slip stitch into the ch-1 and then tighten the slip stitch down (after making sl st, hold yarn against hook with thumb and pull up).

Difficulty: slightly tough (tight work)
Seam: obvious, vertically compressed seam
Bias: no bias
Back: slightly better than front
Alignment: no jog at end but entire piece is distorted

Notes: I didn’t try this method without tightening the slip stitch, but I can’t imagine it’s a contender.

Sample number: 9
Description: Almost standard joined rounds but tighten the slip stitch down as in 8.

Difficulty: fairly easy
Seam: findable but quite non-obvious
Bias: none
Back: as nice as front
Alignment: no jog at end

Notes: This is the best method of its class; stitches stay at a good tension, so there is no added difficulty, and the seam is minimized. Tightening the chain as well, as below, increases tension but does not make a noticeable improvement in the seam. The fact that this is on rose petals is a coincidence, by the way. The most ordering of backgrounds I did was trying to make sure I didn’t get a stretch of one color.

Sample number: 10
Description: Almost standard joined rounds but slip stitch and chain 1 both tightened down (as 8 but repeat tightening after chain).

Difficulty: harder than 9 (tighter)
Seam: very similar to 9
Bias: none
Back: as nice as front
Alignment: no jog at end

Sample number: 7
Description: Progressive joined rounds: slip stitch in first single crochet of round, chain 1, begin round in second stitch of previous round and end in joining slip stitch.

Difficulty: easy
Seam: slightly more than 2 but not much
Bias: forward
Back: as nice on back as front
Alignment: no jog at end

Sample number: 11
Description: Variation on progressive joined rounds: slip stitch in back loop only of first stitch of round; chain 1; make first stitch of new round in second stitch of previous round and last stitch of new round into both loops of first stitch of previous round (where joining slip stitch was made), enclosing the slip stitch.

Difficulty: challenging
Seam: fairly non-obvious
Bias: forward
Back: arguably worse than front
Alignment: no jog at end

Sample number: 12
Description: Unjoined progressive rounds: Do not slip stitch; chain 1; work new round from second stitch of previous round to first stitch of previous round, enclosing ch-1 with last stitch(es).

Difficulty: moderately challenging
Seam: ghastly – looks like spike stitches
Bias: forward
Back: ghastly
Alignment: no jog at end

Sample number: 13
Description: Careful unjoined progressive rounds: as 12, but work final stitch(es) in front of ch-1 instead of enclosing it.

Difficulty: challenging
Seam: quite disguised but findable
Bias: forward
Back: obvious long strands
Alignment: no jog at end

Notes: This final sample is intriguing. It has the least seam I could produce in proper rounds, at least if you don’t get to turn it over. I would recommend chaining very loosely because the part that looks like a seam seems to be produced by needing to pull the first stitch of the round up when you stitch into it at the end of the next round. I’ll be including this in a later episode of Crochet Gladiator: Stripes in the Round.

So! I’m sure there are other variations I could try, but I’m pretty content with this batch. There is no way to slip stitch and single crochet in the same stitch without a chain in between, incidentally, because the slip stitch will turn into a chain when you make the single crochet, ruining its purpose.

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I tried a rainbow of methods. Each was 8 stitches across (however that is counted) and 6 rows tall; I chained 1 at the end of each to knot. They were made with a G hook (4.25mm) and two kinds of worsted weight yarn, Bernat Waverly for yellow and blue and Red Heart Soft for the rest. As usual, click any photo to enlarge it. In this post I’ll use tc to abbreviate turning chain.

Red
First I took the standard approach: Ch 10, dc in 4th ch from hk and rem 6 chs (8 dc counting tc). All subsequent rows: ch 3, turn; dc 7 starting in second st.

This is your friendly neighborhood gappy swatch. No reason to switch away from it if you’re using a hook that is very large for your yarn, or working a pattern that has a lot of open space. I have more thoughts on this below, however.

Orange
Ch-3 but does not count as dc: Ch 11, dc in 4th ch from hk and rem 7 chs (8 dc; tc does not count). All subsequent rows: ch 3, turn; dc 8 starting in 1st st.

This one has no gaps, but it does have lumps. The ch-3 add noticeable width on alternating sides of the swatch. I can’t recommend it.

Yellow
Ch-2 and does not count as dc: Ch 10, dc in 3rd ch from hk and rem 7 chs (8 dc; tc does not count). All subsequent rows: ch 2, turn; dc 8 starting in 1st st.

This was my attempt to repair the lump by removing a chain. It is an improvement. In fact, if you want something easy that won’t slow you down, this might be the best choice.

Green
Ch-3, counts as dc; dc dec first two sts together to fill space without adding sts: Ch 10, dc in 4th ch from hk and rem 6 chs (8 dc counting tc). All subsequent rows: ch 3, turn; dc dec in 1st two sts, dc in rem 6 sts (8 dc counting tc). Could also begin by chaining 11, dc dec in 4th and 5th ch from hk, dc in rem 6 chs.

I had written something in the Learn Crochet paragraph about decreasing with the chain, and this was my attempt to make that have any meaning at all – you can’t decrease with a chain in any way I know of! This looks pretty good from a distance, but of course up close you have the little triangles of decrease at alternate ends of the row.

Blue
Linked stitches (as in this post by Vashti Braha), single loop variation (her step 3): Ch 10, pull up lp in 2nd ch from hk, pull up lp in 4th ch from hk, YO, pull through 2 lps on hk, YO, pull through 2 lps on hk. Dc in rem 6 chs (8 dc counting tc). All subsequent rows: Ch 3, turn; pull up lp through one strand of 2nd ch from hk, pull up lp in second st of prev row; YO, pull through 2 lps on hk; YO, pull through 2 lps on hk. Dc in rem 6 sts.

This was easy to do and is nice looking, but made for a really difficult last stitch on the next row.

Purple
Faux dc with loop left on hook at end of previous row: Ch 8, make faux dc, dc in 2nd ch from hk and rem 6 chs (8 dc). All subsequent rows: turn, make faux dc, dc in 2nd st and rem 6 sts.

Faux dc: loosen loop on hook until it is a little longer than a dc is tall. Hold center of loop against shaft of hook with index finger. Wrap both strands of loop around hook by poking hook away from you under loop (as though base of loop is working end of yarn and you are yarning over). Yarn over with actual working end; pull through doubled strand on hook (2 loops left on hook). Yarn over, pull through both loops on hook. I learned this from a short video by Sandra Roarty and a much longer one by TXCr1cket, though I didn’t actually get what was going on until I tried to do it from memory after watching them on one occasion, and then watched them again later. Note that the videos say to make the loop as tall as a dc, but making it a bit taller to account for the spiral shape it takes on helps with the tightness of the loop you have to stitch into at the end of the next row.

Using the loop left on the hook after the end of the last row makes the faux dc look more like it is attached to the previous row in the same way the actual dcs are. I made the purple swatch a few times to make sure inexperience didn’t affect my results; the first time the faux dc was tight to stitch into on the next row, but with practice it was no worse than a turning chain (maybe even easier). It also took barely more time than a standard dc.

The picture below blows up much larger than mine usually do, so you can compare the swatches more closely.

For me the two winners are yellow and purple: ch 2 and don’t count it, or make a faux dc. Which one I use will depend on how much of a perfectionist I am at that moment.

While I was working it occurred to me that the starting chain is mismatched to the rest of the turning chains in the case of the standard method – you should really be adding 3 chains to the desired number of stitches and skipping 4 to make the first dc. Adding 2 and skipping 3 essentially makes the first two stitches an increase instead of neighbors. This is especially clear in the linked stitch method of fixing the gap, where in the first row you skip 1 chain and pull up a loop in the next, skip one more chain and then pull up the second loop. In later rows you skip one chain and pull up a loop, then skip a chain and a stitch and pull up the second loop. I tried the standard turning chain approach with that one tweak.

It’s a little hard to tell because my starting chain is tight anyway, but it is more square. If you made a dc rectangle and then had to stitch around it, I expect this corner would be better behaved than the standard one.

Any method that doesn’t use the turning chain as a stitch automatically has a match between the starting row and the subsequent rows, including the faux dc, leaving red, green, and blue. I could have started green this way easily by chaining 11, decreasing the 4th and 5th chain from the hook together, and continuing down the last 6 chains. In fact, I don’t remember the rationale against doing it that way in the first place! Blue is fixed similarly to red, by adding an additional starting chain and additional skip, though the skip is added after the first loop is pulled up: ch 11, pull up a loop in the 2nd and 5th ch from hk, complete as for a dc, dc in remaining 6 chains.

I hope this helps someone beautify their double crochet work. Have I left any methods off the list?

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