Locked Double Crochet Tutorial
Overlay Mosaic Crochet
All of my designs come with the full written pattern and x-marked chart for overlay mosaic crochet.
Two Stitches
Overlay Mosaic Crochet uses two stitches: a dropped double crochet in the front loop only and a single crochet in the back loop only (US terminology).
Tutorials
This tutorial covers the locked stitch only. See my other tutorials if you need to learn mosaic crochet first.
Locked Double Crochet Tutorial
Overlay Mosaic Crochet
All of my designs come with the full written pattern and x-marked chart for overlay mosaic crochet.
Two Stitches
Overlay Mosaic Crochet uses two stitches: a dropped double crochet in the front loop only and a single crochet in the back loop only (US terminology).
Tutorials
This tutorial covers the locked stitch only. See my other tutorials if you need to learn mosaic crochet first.
Flaps
Whenever you do a dropped double crochet in the front loop two rows down (I shorten that to “dc” in my patterns – read the Key) you will be skipping the single crochet above it.
If you make a lot of these stitches in a row you create a bit of a flap on the wrong side of your project.
This flap bothers some people and they like to lock it down while crocheting.
The project on the left has lots of thick ridges on the wrong side; these flaps are bothersome to some people.
The project on the right (a different pattern) has had all the double crochets locked down. The wrong side is smooth and flat.
Optional Lock-Down Stitch
There are a few ways we can lock the flaps down.
I prefer this method (see photos and videos below) because it doesn’t seem to squish the project as much. Other methods sometimes use a lot more yarn and compress things down too much.
I don’t lock my stitches down, even with long stretches of dropped double crochets! I do lock my corner stitches down when I’m working from the center-out though.
Video
This video is less than one minute long and goes over the locked double crochet twice.
I lost the original video I had on this page. This screenshot is all I have left.
Photos
To prevent the small flaps on the back of your work, consider locking-in your double crochet stitch.
Some prefer to lock every stitch, others do every other stitch. I only lock in my corner stitches when working from the center-out.
Do what works for you!
Begin like a normal dropped double crochet: yarn over, skip the next stitch and instead work into the Front Loop of the stitch 2 rows below.
The spot we will work into is marked with a red dot.
Pull up a loop. You now have 3 loops on your hook, like normal for a double crochet.
Yarn over and pull through two loops.
This is the first half of a double crochet (like normal).
The Locking-In Part
Insert your hook into the back loop of the single crochet you skipped.
Pull your yarn through all three loops on your hook.
Your double crochet is now complete!
