Avoiding Gaps in Double Crochet: Quick Tip

Hi, I'm Mary Beth Temple. And one thing that people ask me about all the time is how to avoid a gap at the beginning of a double crochet row. Because you can see right here if I did a chain three turn, sometimes it sticks out a little bit and there's a little gap here that you don't want. Now, there are a lot of ways to do it, but this is the one that I like. Instead of doing chain three turn, I'm gonna turn my work and extend my loop. So it's a little bit taller than normal. Now, I'm going to bring my hook around that loop. You're an over and drop a loop and I'm gonna work right in that first stitch and finish my double crochet. Then when I make my next one, that first one looks like a stitch and does not look like a chain three. And it helps you avoid having that gap that can be caused by a chain three in turn. And it's gonna make your side edges look so much neater.