How to Front Post Double Crochet
If you’re ready to expand your knowledge beyond basic stitches or start adding some raised texture to your crochet projects like ribbing or cables, adding post stitches to your stitch knowledge will expand the textures and patterns available to you. Your first stop in learning how to work post stitches is the Front Post Double Crochet.
One of the easiest ways to add texture to your crochet project is by using post stitches. Despite working on the post of the stitch being almost the same as working a stitch normally, these stitches can be intimidating to beginners. Let’s take all the confusion and worry out of post stitches and learn how to Front Post Double Crochet.
In this stitch tutorial, we’ll do more than just talk about how to work a Front Post Double Crochet. We’ll talk about the anatomy of the stitch and get into the details so you can feel confident using this stitch in future projects.
What is the Front Post Double Crochet (FPdc)?
The Front Post Double Crochet (abbreviated to FPdc) is simply a double crochet worked around the front side of the post of the stitch below, instead of into the top of the stitch. This pulls the stitch forward (toward you) which creates a raised texture.
Don’t worry, we’ll talk about the anatomy of a double crochet so you can identify the post of the stitch quickly and easily. Identifying the post is the “hardest” part of working a post stitch, but I promise it’s not all that difficult once you know the anatomy.
What stitches should I know before I try a FPdc?
Before you try this crochet stitch, you should know the basic crochet stitches. This means you should know and feel at least somewhat confident creating chains and working single crochet, half double crochet and double crochet stitches.
Essentially what this means is as long as you can work a double crochet and understand the technical parts to working a double crochet (how to insert your hook into a stitch, how to yarn over, how to pull through loops, etc.), you can work a Front Post Double Crochet.
There’s nothing super advanced or fancy to this crochet stitch. It’s easier than it sounds!
Are front post stitches created only using double crochet?
Nope! You can also create a front post stitch using single crochet, half double crochet and treble crochets! The Front Post Double Crochet is typically the most used, so that’s what we’ll use in this tutorial.
Any other front post stitch, like a Front Post Half Double Crochet, will be worked similar to the Front Post Double Crochet. They will all be worked around the post of the stitch, not into the top of the stitch.
Double Crochet Stitch Anatomy (And How to Identify the Post)
In order to confidently work a Front Post Double Crochet (or any other front post stitch), we need to be able to identify the post of the stitch we will be working around. This means that we need to understand the anatomy of double crochets (and crochet stitches in general) before we dive in.
For the sake of this tutorial, we will look at the anatomy of a double crochet. Typically you’ll end up working a Front Post Double Crochet on the post of a double crochet or a half double crochet (which look similar to the double crochet). Rarely you’ll see them worked on a treble and very rarely you’ll see them worked on the post of a single crochet.
Here I have a swatch of 2 rows of 10 double crochet. On this third row, I’ve worked 3 double crochet.
Let’s place 1 more double crochet and keep an eye on the anatomy so that we can clearly identify the post of the stitch to work a Front Post Double Crochet later.
So, we will yarn over, insert our hook into the top of the stitch below, yarn over and pull up a loop. We will have 3 loops on our hook.
I have highlighted these three loops in yellow, pink and orange.
The orange loop is the loop that was already on our hook from finishing the previous double crochet.
The pink loop is our first yarn over before we inserted our hook into the stitch.
The yellow loop is the loop that we have pulled through the top of the stitch.
As we make our double crochet, we will pay attention to these 3 loops and their placement so that we can understand the anatomy of a double crochet.
Now, let’s continue the next step of our double crochet. We will yarn over and pull through two loops. With this step complete, we have a double crochet that is half finished.
Let’s take a look at where the three loops are now. The two images above are the same however, the bottom image is highlighted for clarity.
The yellow and pink loops are the first two loops that we have pulled through. You can see how they have settled. The yellow loop is still at the bottom of the stitch but is pulled a bit vertically and the pink loop is now sitting on top of it, almost like a top of a stitch. This resembles a finished single crochet.
The orange loop is still on the hook, waiting to be worked. Finally, we have a new loop that a black arrow points to in the bottom image. This is the loop we have just created in our yarn over, pull through 2.
Let’s finish the double crochet by yarning over again and pulling through the 2 remaining loops on the hook.
We now have a finished double crochet!
The three original loops are still highlighted in their original colors and an arrow points to the loop created in the first yarn over, pull through 2.
The orange loop is now worked and is the top of the double crochet stitch.
The yellow loop, pink loop and the loop an arrow points to all create the post of the stitch.
Here’s another way to look at the same information.
In this image, I’ve highlighted the top of the stitch in the same orange as before, so we know that if we wanted to work a normal stitch into this double crochet, we would go under the two loops highlighted orange.
Highlighted yellow is the post of the stitch, which was created by all of the loops we have been paying attention to.
When we work any type of Post Stitch, we will work it around the post of the stitch (yellow highlight), not into the top of the stitch (Orange Highlight).
Now that we know the stitch anatomy of a double crochet and can identify the post of the stitch, we can move on to placing a Front Post Double Crochet in the next stitch.
How to Front Post Double Crochet
This Front Post Double Crochet stitch tutorial will show you step-by-step how to work this stitch with photos along the way. Similar to the anatomy lesson above, there will be highlights and arrows to help identify the steps as clearly as possible.
Ready to get started? Let’s go over the technical stuff first.
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YARN AND HOOK USED IN THIS TUTORIAL
To practice the Front Post Double Crochet, you can use any yarn you like! Choose a hook size that corresponds with the yarn weight you’re using and you’re good to go.
In my tutorial photos, I’m using Bernat Maker Home Dec in colorway Aqua and my Furls Ebony Streamline Wood 8mm (M).
WRITTEN FRONT POST DOUBLE CROCHET INSTRUCTIONS
To work a Front Post Double Crochet (FPdc), you will:
Yarn over, insert your hook from front of work to back of work between the posts of the previous stitch and current stitch and maneuver the hook back to the front of the work on the other side of the post. Your hook should now sit horizontal with the post of the stitch on the front of hook. Yarn over, pull a loop through. You will have 3 loops on hook. Yarn over, pull through 2 loops. Yarn over, pull through 2 loops again.
Step by Step Instructions
Now that we have the technical stuff out of the way, let’s walk step by step through how to work the Front Post Double Crochet.
For this tutorial, I am using the same swatch as above. I have 2 rows of 10 double crochet and, on the 3rd row, I’ve worked 4 double crochet.
First thing’s first, let’s identify the post of the next stitch.
This image has the same picture twice. The top picture allows you to see the work as you would on your own swatch and the bottom picture shows the top of the next stitch and the post highlighted.
To properly place a front post double crochet, we will insert the hook around the post of the highlighted stitch from front of work to back of work between the post of the previous stitch and the current stitch. Then, we bring the hook back to the front of the work on the other side of the post.
Let’s go through this step by step.
We will yarn over and maneuver our hook in the same direction of the arrow in this image. To do this, we will swing our hook down and in front of the work.
Insert the hook from front of work to back of work between the posts of the previous stitch and the current stitch.
Then, once your hook is inserted between the posts, bring the hook back to the front of the work on the other side of the current stitch’s post. A black arrow shows where your hook will come through.
Your hook should sit horizontal with the post of the stitch on the front of the hook.
This is why this stitch is called a “Front Post Double Crochet”. It is worked on the front of the work and the post of the stitch is on the “front” of the hook!
This is what your work will look like if you flip it over and look at it from the back side while the hook is still inserted around the post.
You can see how there is now a gap where that stitch post would be if it weren’t pulled to the other side of the hook.
Now, we yarn over and pull a loop through.
We have 3 loops on our hook. From here, we will finish this Front Post Double Crochet as we would a normal double crochet.
We will yarn over and pull through two loops…
And yarn over, pull through 2 loops.
We now have 1 completed Front Post Double Crochet. These images are the same however I have highlighted the bottom picture for clarity.
The Front Post Double Crochet is highlighted yellow. You can see how this stitch wraps around the post instead of being worked into the top of the stitch.
The previous four Double Crochet worked are highlighted with orange. You can see how these stitches are clearly worked into the top of the stitch.
Also notice how the Front Post Double Crochet pulls the post of the previous stitch forward, so it now sits higher than the previous double crochets.
If we look at the finished Front Post Double Crochet from the back of the work, we can see the top of the stitch that we worked around is still hanging out. Because we have worked around the post of this stitch, we want to make sure that we do not work into the top of it. This would cause us to increase our work and we would end up with more stitches.
In this image, a small portion is highlighted yellow. This yellow highlight is the bottom of the Front Post Double Crochet, so we can see how it sits on the post of the stitch we worked it on.
Now, let’s say we wanted to put a Front Post Double Crochet in the next stitch. First, we identify the post of the next stitch.
Once again, the top of the stitch is highlighted orange and the post of the stitch is highlighted yellow. We want to work around the post of the stitch and not into the top of the stitch.
Following the same steps as listed above, we will yarn over and maneuver the hook to the front of the work, aligning the tip of the hook with the post of the stitch.
We will insert our hook from front to back in between the post of the previous stitch and current stitch. Then, we will bring the hook back to the front of the work on the other side of the post.
With these steps completed properly, our hook will sit horizontal to the work with the stitch post over the hook.
Then, we will yarn over and pull a loop through. We will have 3 loops on our hook.
We finish the Front Post Double Crochet as we would a normal double crochet.
We yarn over, pull through 2 loops. 2 loops remain on hook. Yarn over and pull through 2 loops.
We now have 2 Front Post Double Crochet!
You can see a bit more clearly now that the front post stitches bring the work forward.
Now that we know how to work Front Post Double Crochets one after the other, we need to know how to work a standard double crochet in the next stitch.
When we turn our work around and look at it from the back side, we can see the tops of the stitches hanging out behind the Front Post Double Crochets we have just worked.
It is important to know that you do NOT work into the tops of these stitches unless it is specifically stated in the pattern you’re following. Working into the tops of these stitches will increase your work and you will end up with too many stitches.
Remember: These stitches are already worked so we will “skip” the top of the stitches highlighted orange.
An arrow points to the top of the NEXT stitch. This is the top of the stitch we would work into if we were placing a standard double crochet.
Looking at the front of the work again, we can identify the top of the next stitch by looking for the top of the stitch that belongs to the next post.
An arrow points to the top of the next stitch in this image.
Here we can see the standard double crochet worked into the top of the stitch as normal.
And here is the row finished with standard double crochets.
We have 4 double crochets, 2 Front Post Double Crochets and 4 more double crochets for a total of 10 stitches.
So, what do I do now?
To continue practicing the Front Post Double Crochet, you can simply continue creating swatches of double crochets so that you can continue to practice placing FPdc’s around the posts.
You can even practice Front Post stitches with half double crochets, if you wanted!
Once confident with Front Post Double Crochets (or using half double crochets), you’ll want to move on to learning how to Back Post Double Crochet.
The combination of Front Post Double Crochet and Back Post Double Crochet can create gorgeous textures, like ribbing. Front Post and Back Post Double Crochets are used a ton in crochet projects – there’s no reason to shy away from them!
That’s all there is to the Front Post Double Crochet!
You should now feel confident working the Front Post Double Crochet and using it in almost any pattern that calls for it!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and that you can move forward crocheting all your favorite patterns that use Front Post Stitches with confidence. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today!
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Shannon | Designer & Editor
Shannon helps crocheters find their next project and build their skills with in depth tutorials and crochet patterns on her blog, theloopholefox.com.
With more than a decade of crochet experience, Shannon knows that understanding why we do something matters just as much as how we do it. She teaches new techniques and crochet stitches in depth so you can crochet with confidence.
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