Crochet foundation chain length made simple!

Have you ever tied yourself in knots trying to work out how many foundation chains you need to make to achieve the correct number of stitches for your crochet project? Let me help you to get your crochet foundation chain length perfect every time and explain it with this handy guide. Whether you’re a crochet designer working on a new design, or a crocheter wanting to adapt a pattern, foundation chain lengths are really important-there’s nothing more frustrating than realising you have too few or too many stitches when really you just want to get on and crochet!

Double crochet foundation chain

Let’s begin with double crochet (dc), or US single crochet (sc). This one is easy, simply add 1 to the number of stitches you need. So, if you want to make 10 double crochet stitches, you need to chain 11.

The 11th chain forms your turning chain, but it doesn’t count as a stitch here. You’ll make 10 double crochets – beginning in the 2nd chain from the hook and working 1 dc in each remaining chain.

Half treble crochet foundation chain

Let’s move on now to half trebles (htr), or US half double crochet (hdc). Just like double crochet, you need to add 1 to the number of stitches you need. Sounds confusing? Let’s look at the maths – in this example we are wanting to make 10 stitches again.

We’ve made 11 chains, but this time you’re working your 1st stitch in the 3rd chain from the hook. Those 2 chains you’ve skipped form your first htr stitch. 11-2=9, so you have 9 chains left. Work 1 htr into each of those 9 chains and you’ll have 10 stitches, 9 htr plus the stitch formed by the 2 skipped chains at the start.

Treble crochet foundation chain

Ok, we’ve got those sorted, let’s move on to treble (tr) or US double crochet (dc). For these, you need to add 2 to the number of stitches required. In this case, we are wanting 10 stitches, so we will chain 12.

You skip 3 chains (which form your first tr (or dc)) and work a tr into the 4th chain from the hook. 12-3=9 so you have 9 chains to work into. Make 1 tr into each and you’ll have 10 stitches-9tr plus the stitch formed by the skipped chains.

Double treble crochet

How about double trebles (dtr) or US treble crochet (tr)? For these, add 3 to the number of stitches you want to make. So, sticking with our example of 10 stitches, we need to chain 13.

You begin by skipping 4 chains and working into the 5th chain from the hook, these 4 chains count as your first dtr. 13-4=9, so there are 9 chains left to work in. 1 dtr in each of those chains plus the stitch formed by the skipped chains gives you your 10 stitches.

I’ve covered the most common stitches here, if the stitch pattern is more complicated then the foundation chain length will vary. Hopefully this has given you a good start though and helped to explain it all a little! If you want to use these to work out how many stitches you need to achieve a given size, my post on crochet tension will help you. Are you looking for an alternative to a foundation chain? My video showing how to work a chainless foundation might be just the thing!

Happy crocheting!

Karen x