How to do Slip Stitch in Crochet
What is a Slip Stitch in Crochet?
The slip stitch is the most basic of all the crochet stitches. It is the easiest and the smallest because it hardly has any height to it. It basically sits right on top of your other stitches as shown in the photo below.
The slip stitches are shown in pink.
What is the Abbreviation for this Stitch?
The slip stitch is referenced in two ways. Either sl st in US crochet terms or ss in UK terms. See this blog post for all the crochet stitch abbreviations.
Continue scrolling for the written instructions for each technique or watch the video tutorial below.
What is the Slip Stitch Used for?
The slip stitch can be found in nearly every crochet pattern, so it’s an important one to learn, however you wouldn’t normally use it like the other basic stitches.
You wouldn’t, for example, crochet a whole project just in slip stitches. You could, but you usually wouldn’t because it would take so much longer due to its height.
The slip stitch is usually used for various crochet techniques, specifically four techniques that I will go through below.
The four techniques are:
Joining two ends of a foundation chain to make a circle.
Joining the two ends of a round.
Moving across a row without adding additional height.
Creating patterns with surface stitches.
How to Make a Basic Slip Stitch
Before we go through each technique, let’s first learn how to make a basic slip stitch. It is made up of four moves as follows.
Insert your hook into the next stitch.
Yarn over.
Pull through the stitch. You have two loops on the hook.
Pull the first loop through the last loop.
Watch the Video Tutorial
You can find more basic crochet stitch videos, plus beginner crochet tutorials, crochet tips and free patterns on my YouTube channel.
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The Four Slip Stitch Techniques
Joining Two Ends of a Foundation Chain
The most common use for a slip stitch is to join two ends together. We would usually do this when working on a project that is worked in rounds.
We can either begin the project by making a magic circle or by making a foundation chain and joining the two ends with a slip stitch to make a circle.
Begin by making your foundation chain, then make a slip stitch into the first chain of the foundation chain, following the steps above, to join the beginning of the foundation chain to the end. You should end up with a circle to start your first round.
Joining Two Ends of a Round
You would also use a slip stitch to join the two ends of a complete round to finish the circle. Once you have made the required number of stitches for a round, you would then slip stitch into the first stitch of the round to bring the end of the round to the beginning and complete the circle.
Moving Across a Row
Let’s say you want to get to the middle of your row before making any more stitches. You can use the slip stitch here to move across your row without adding any extra height.
Work across your row as normal with slip stitches and they will sit neatly along the top of the previous row.
Then if you want to begin a new stitch in the middle of the row, start by making your starting chain for that stitch and continue as normal with the new stitch.
Creating Patterns with Surface Stitches
You can also use the slip stitch to create surface stitches to make patterns on the top of your project.
It is the same steps as above but instead of inserting your hook into a stitch, you would insert your hook into a space in the top of your project, then from the back, yarn over and pull through the space to get two loops on your hook. Bring that first loop through the last loop again to create a surface stitch.
I really hope you found this tutorial useful. If you have questions don’t hesitate to get in touch or pop them in the comments section, I’m always happy to help.
