Want your crochet to look like knitting? Use the HDC Rib Stitch to give your crocheted projects a beautiful knitted look.
It seems to me that a lot of crochet techniques used today are designed to get the crocheted fabric to mimic knitting. The Knit-Look is popular among crocheters, especially those who don’t knit.
It is not fully possible to make crochet look exactly like knitting, because it’s not knitting. However, there are plenty of great techniques that can make crochet look very similar to knitting.
Well, this is one of my favorites.
I call it the Ribbed Half-Double Crochet, but I have also heard it called “half-double crochet in the third loop”. It creates a knit-look fabric with deep ridges between the knit columns, which kinda resembles knitted brioche.
The best part is, it’s just like working regular half-double crochet. All we change is where we work the half-double crochet stitches.
If you are familiar with how we insert into the top of a regular stitch, there are two strands to the top of each stitch. The strand farthest from you is the back loop, and the strand closest to you is the front loop. Normally, we would insert into one or both of those strands to work a stitch.
But here’s the catch:
We are not going to work into either of the strands on the top of the stitch. Instead, look at the side of the previous row of half-double crochet that is facing you. See that slightly diagonal strand that runs across the front of that stitch? That is the third loop. It’s not the front loop or the back loop, but it’s an extra strand / loop on the side of the stitch that we can work into.
When we work all of our stitches into those third loops, we get an unusual effect. The tops of the stitches, since they are not worked into, are folded forward. These rows of the tops of those stitches create what looks like our knit columns.
Because the tops of the rows make the “knit” columns, this stitch looks most like knitting when the rows are worked vertically. In other words, our crochet piece is rotated so the rows go up and down instead of going across from side to side.
Watch the video below for a step-by-step demonstration on how to work this stitch:
This stitch is also reversible, since it looks the same on both sides. While you can work into the third loop of double or treble crochet, I personally don’t think they look as good with this technique as half-double crochet. This does not work with single crochet, which does not have a third loop to work into.
I have used this stitch in my Knit-Look Hat pattern, my Knit-Look Cowl pattern, my Knit-Look Scarf pattern, and even as the cuff ribbing in my Comfy Cozy Cardigan, my Textured Pullover, and my Cuddle Cardigan.
If you like this knit-look stitch, check out these free patterns that use this stitch:
What’s your favorite Knit-Look Crochet Stitch?
Pin the image below to save this tutorial for later!
I’m subscribed to your channel for quite some time now like this video and your others anyways like this stitch you always explain good and go nice and slow do you have anything like this with this stitch besides a cowl or hat like maybe a dishcloth etc thanks for good video etc keep up the good work
Hi Pat! I do not have a dishcloth pattern with this stitch, but you could easily make one without a pattern. Just decide how wide you want it to be, then chain until it is the correct width, plus 2 chains. Skip the first 2 chains, and half double crochet across. You can then continue working in the HDC rib stitch until your dishcloth is the length you want. I hope this helps!