Beginner's Step-by-Step Tutorial: How to Double Crochet

When you’re learning to crochet, one of the first techniques you need to know is how to double crochet. This stitch is a basic crochet stitch that you’ll use frequently. Read on to learn how to make a double crochet stitch in many situations.

Tutorial photos by Kathryn Vercillo of Crochet Concupiscence

Note: This article refers to the American crochet term of double crochet.

How to double crochet step by step

Once you learn how to double crochet, you’ll know everything you need to make even more basic crochet stitches. You’ll master how to insert your hook into the next loop, yarn over, draw up a new loop of yarn and pull the working yarn through the loop.

For this tutorial, we’re assuming you already know how to chain and single crochet. Start with a small swatch of fabric to follow along with this tutorial.

Step 1: Yarn over

Step 2: Insert your hook into the stitch

Step 3: Yarn over

Step 4: Pull yarn through the stitch and draw up a loop

You should have three loops on your hook.

Step 5: Yarn over

Step 6: Pull yarn through the first two loops on the hook

You’ll now have two loops on your hook.

Step 7: Yarn over

Step 8: Pull yarn through the remaining two loops on the hook

And that’s it! You’ve successfully learned how to double crochet.

More tips to master the double crochet

Turning chain for double crochet

Whether you’re working crochet in the round or in rows, you’ll typically need to use turning chains at the beginning of each round or row. The turning chain in double crochet is a chain three.

How to decrease in double crochet

When decreasing your stitches, you put two stitches into the respective stitches, but you leave the first one unfinished until you’ve mostly completed the second one. Then you finish them off together, turning the two stitches into one stitch.

Here are the instructions to decrease in double crochet (note that steps 1-7 are the same as the first 7 steps of the regular double crochet).

Step 1: Yarn over

Step 2: Insert your hook into the stitch

Step 3: Yarn over

Step 4: Pull yarn through the stitch and draw up a loop

Step 5: Yarn over

Step 6: Pull yarn through the first two loops on the hook

Step 7: Yarn over

At this stage, you’ve almost completed your first double crochet stitch. You’ll leave the remaining loops on the hook and continue with your decrease by starting the second double crochet stitch. (You are basically going to repeat steps 2-6 above).

Step 8: Insert your hook into the stitch

Step 9: Yarn over

Step 10: Pull yarn through the stitch and draw up a loop

There will now be four loops on your hook.

Step 11: Yarn over

Step 12: Pull yarn through the first two loops on the hook

This will leave you with three loops on the hook

Step 13: Yarn over

Step 14: Pull yarn through all of the remaining loops on the hook

This final step closes both the first and second double crochet stitches together, effectively turning two side-by-side dc stitches into one stitch, which is how to decrease in crochet. 

How to double crochet a circle

Image via Craftsy blogger Kathryn Senior

You can crochet a circle using any of the basic stitches, but you need to know some basic rules if you want to make sure that your circle lies flat. This post is great resource for learning how to crochet in the round, including how to make a flat circle using double crochet.