How to Front Post Crochet 2 Rows Below – How to Identify Stitches and Why You’d Use this Technique

Here I have a swatch of 6 rows of double crochet with 12 stitches in each row.

When a pattern is telling you to place a front post crochet stitch two rows below, they’re referencing the row the black arrow is pointing to (with 2 on the left side).

The row that we would typically work a standard stitch (like a single or double crochet) in is the first row below.

The row below the first row is “2 rows below”.

For stitch anatomy, we need to know where the “top” of the crochet stitch is and where the post of the stitch is.

In this image, I’ve highlighted the top of the double crochet in orange. This is where you would normally insert your hook if you were going to place a standard crochet stitch.

I’ve highlighted the post of the stitch yellow.

We know that this yellow highlighted post “belongs” to the orange highlighted top of the stitch.

In this image, you can see that I’ve placed a yellow highlight vertically down the row. It is almost zig zagged.

The nature of crochet stitches (all crochet stitches, not just double crochet) is that they lean.

This is most notable in the round – You know when your seam goes diagonal instead of straight up and down?

Worked in rows, the stitches lean to the left for one row and then lean to the right for one row.

So, with all of the leaning and this zig zagged line, how are we to make sure that we are working into the correct stitch – especially when we have more stitches than 12?

The black arrow in this image points down to the 6th stitch of this row. Below the black arrow, a yellow arrow also points downward.

This yellow arrow represents the post of the 6th stitch but, instead of being highlighted just to show where it is, we are going to follow the yellow arrow down to find the top of the stitch this post was worked into.

Below the yellow arrow, the top of the stitch this post was worked into is highlighted orange and the post that belongs to the top of the stitch is highlighted yellow.

Couldn’t you just count the post of the stitches two rows below over until you find the 6th stitch, though?

Yeah! Absolutely. With smaller projects that don’t have a ton of stitches (like 192, for example), you could easily count the posts. You could count them across like I’ve highlighted with yellow dots until you find the stitch you’re looking for.

With larger projects, though, you’ll likely want to be able to identify the stitch without counting.

Additionally, it’s always a good thing to understand the stitch anatomy of our projects.

Let’s pretend a crochet pattern is telling us to place 1 half double crochet in the first 4 stitches and then 1 Front Post Double Treble Crochet in the next stitch 2 rows below.

Placing the 4 half double crochet stitches is easy. We will place 1 in each stitch that has a black dot over it in the image.

Then, we come to the 5th stitch that a black arrow is pointing to.

Using the method we outlined above, we can identify the post of the 5th stitch that we will work our Front Post Double Treble Crochet in.

We will follow the yellow arrow representing the 5th stitch down to find the top of the stitch it was worked into in the row below.

The top of the stitch that the 5th stitch was worked into is highlighted orange.

Below the top of the stitch is the post of the stitch which is highlighted yellow. We know that we place our Front Post Double Treble Crochet around this post.

If you haven’t worked a Front Post Double Treble Crochet before, you can review my step by step photo tutorial to learn it in depth.

In this image, you can see that I have started my Front Post Double Treble in the stitch 2 rows below. I have yarned over 3 times, inserted my hook from front to back around the post of the stitch, yarned over and pulled up a loop. I have 5 loops on my hook.

Notice how far down the crochet hook has to go to properly work around this stitch post.

Now that the Front Post Double Treble Crochet is completed, you can see that the work stands up properly as it should.

We have completely skipped over the first row below (marked with an X on the right side of the row). This is the row we would normally work a stitch into if we weren’t using this technique.

The row that is 2 rows below is marked with a check mark. The post that we worked our stitch around is highlighted yellow.

This image shows the same picture twice however, the bottom image is highlighted to help clearly identify the post of the stitch we will work into.

In this image, I’ve already placed the 1 half double crochet and now I’m prepared to place 1 front post double treble crochet in the next stitch 2 rows below.

Using the same method we have been using, we will follow the stitch posts down, as highlighted.

If you wanted to, you could just count 2 stitch posts over from the first front post double treble crochet to make it “easy” but we are in a tutorial for stitch anatomy, after all. 😉

Here is the front post double treble crochet placed. Now we can really start to see the texture of these stitches.

Isn’t the texture of this technique interesting? We can see why the taller stitches are necessary, since they reach all the way down to the row below without causing the work to bunch up.

This is a swatch of 6 rows with 12 stitches. It is 1 row of double crochets followed by 1 row of single crochets.

The last row worked on this swatch is a row of single crochets. The row previous is a row of double crochets.

Similar to the swatch of all double crochets, a black arrow points to the second row below and the rows are numbered 1 and 2.

The wrong side of single crochets don’t look the same as the wrong side of other stitches. The loops of single crochets don’t look the same because you only yarn over and pull a loop through once, so they aren’t pulled up as much and don’t have the same space that other stitches do.

When following a single crochet downward to find the post below, we want to pay attention to the V shapes that are under the top of the stitch.

These “V shapes” are created when we insert our hook into the stitch, yarn over and pull a loop through.

The top of the stitch is highlighted orange and the “V shape” is highlighted yellow.

So, in this example, let’s say the pattern instructs us to put 1 half double crochet in the first stitch and a front post double crochet (click for tutorial, if needed) in the next stitch 2 rows below.

We place our 1st half double crochet in the first stitch and then identify the post of the next stitch 2 rows below.

In this image, the post of the stitch 2 rows below is highlighted yellow and the “V shape” that is the post of the single crochet is highlighted pink.

A black arrow shows how we will work around the post of the stitch 2 rows below.

This image shows how it would look if we alternated 1 half double crochet and 1 front post double crochet 2 rows below.

We can see how the front post double crochets completely skip the single crochet row and work around the posts of the double crochet stitches in the row below.

Let’s say a crochet pattern is asking us to skip 2 stitches and then place 1 front post double treble crochet in each of the next 2 stitches 2 rows below.

We will skip the next 2 stitches as we would if we were skipping stitches as normal and then identify the first post of the stitches we will work into 2 rows below using the same method as we have been through this tutorial.

In this example, you can especially see how the post of the stitch 2 rows below leans and can be difficult to find.

Once we have identified the post, we can place our front post double treble crochet into it.

In this image, I’ve marked the two skipped stitches with black dots. I have also marked the corresponding posts 2 rows below with yellow dots.

Note: If we were to place only this 1 front post double treble crochet and place 1 half double crochet in the next stitch, we would still “skip” the first stitch and we would place 1 half double crochet in the next stitch (left most black dot).

We would skip the first stitch because this front post double treble crochet counts as that stitch being worked. This ensures that we do not accidentally increase the number of stitches in our work.

Now, let’s place our second front post double treble crochet in the post of the next stitch as the “pattern” instructs.

We know that the next stitch 2 rows below will be directly next to the post of the stitch we just worked around, so we can place our front post double treble crochet in that stitch.

Here we have the 2 front post double treble crochets completed. You can see how they lean like a forward slash ( / ) but they do not pull or warp the work. This is why such a tall stitch would be used.

In this image, the posts we worked the front post double treble crochets around are highlighted yellow and the posts 2 rows below the skipped stitches are highlighted pink.

Note: If the pattern instructed us to place 1 half double crochet in the next stitch, we would still “skip” the 2 stitches and we would place 1 half double crochet in the next stitch.

We would skip the 2 stitches because these front post double treble crochets count as those stitches being worked. This ensures that we do not accidentally increase the number of stitches in our work.

This is the same image as above, but let’s look at it a little differently.

Here we can see that the tops of the stitches we skipped are almost completely hidden by the two front post double treble crochets that we’ve placed.

The posts of the stitches we worked into are highlighted yellow and the posts 2 rows below the skipped stitches are highlighted pink.

We know that these two pink highlighted posts are the two stitches we skipped because they are directly before the two posts we worked around.

While we absolutely could use the method we have been using in this tutorial to find this stitch, we don’t really need to because we know these are the two stitches we need.

To work 1 front post double treble crochet into each of the two skipped stitches, we will go all the way back to the first skipped stitch and place our front post stitch.

In the image above, this stitch is the rightmost pink highlighted stitch.

In this image, the stitch post is still highlighted pink.

An arrow shows how we will need to maneuver our hook all the way back to the post to insert our hook around it.

This will feel like your work is pulling weird and like it doesn’t make sense.

See how in this image, the two front post stitches that are already worked are pulled a bit to allow the hook to come all the way back to the skipped stitch?

That’s okay! They’ll work themselves out.

Follow through with placing the front post stitch and once complete, you’ll see that it works out fine.

Just like all other front post stitches, make sure that everything is behind your hook except for the post of the stitch we are working around.

Here’s how the work will look with this stitch completed.

These two images are the same however I’ve highlighted the bottom image for clarity.

You can see how this new front post stitch crosses over the two previous front post stitches.

The first two front post stitches are highlighted pink and the new front post stitch we worked in highlighted yellow.

See how it’s making an “x”?

Finally, we place our last front post stitch in the last stitch that was skipped.

The post of the final skipped stitch is highlighted pink in this image. You can see it in between the first two front post stitches and the most recent front post stitch.

An arrow shows how we will maneuver the hook back to this stitch post.

Don’t be afraid to push the stitches out of the way to work around this post. You won’t hurt anything!

Go ahead and place the last front post stitch in this highlighted stitch.

With this last stitch placed, you will now have completed the crossed over stitches!

I’ve highlighted the crossed stitches as they have been in this image. The first two stitches that we placed are highlighted pink and the last two that we placed are highlighted yellow.

It’s important to know where we would place our next standard stitch, so let’s look at the back of the work.

Because we have worked a total of 4 front post stitches, we will need to skip the tops of the 4 stitches in the row to make sure we don’t unnecessarily increase our work.

The tops of these 4 stitches are highlighted orange. Where the post stitches were worked 2 rows below are highlighted yellow.

The next stitch we would work a standard stitch into has a black arrow pointing to it.

In this image, a black arrow points to the next stitch we would work a standard stitch into.

As you build confidence using this technique, I would recommend always looking at the back of the work to make sure that you are “skipping” the necessary amount of stitches so that the work doesn’t accidentally become increased.

Here is what the row looks like with the last 3 standard half double crochets placed.

Notice that despite crossing stitches, the stitches in this row we have worked are all even and are one after another.

They aren’t twisted or out of place. You can now very easily make a turning chain, turn and place 1 stitch in each stitch across.

Cool, right?