Working into Back of Crochet Chain

Once a crochet chain is created, new stitches can be made from that chain by working into it. In this video, crochet expert Mary Beth Temple explains how to work into the back of a crochet chain.

While the manner of working into a crochet chain often comes down to personal preference, Mary Beth notes that there are some advantages to working into the back of a crochet chain.

• Creates a nice clean edge along start of project, which looks remarkably similar to the final edge
• Easy to seam
• More elastic
• Easy to work additional stitches into, such as adding a lace edging

Mary Beth begins by closely examining a crochet chain. When looking at a crochet chain, there is a front and a back. The front of the crochet chain looks like a column of Vs. The back of the chain has bumps for each chain that’s created. She notes that each chain has a total of three legs – two legs to form the front of the chain and one leg to form the back of the chain.

To work into the back of the chain, the hook is inserted from front to back under the one leg that creates the bump. Once the hook is under this bump, Mary Beth works a single crochet stitch. She works a few more stitches, working each of them into the back of the crochet chain. Once the stitches are complete, Mary Beth looks at the top and bottom edge of her swatch, noting that they closely resemble each other, making this method of working into crochet chain a nice option when you want matching starting and ending edges for your project.