Back Loop Slip Stitch Ribbing

Hi, I'm Brenda K.B. Anderson and in this video I would like to teach you one of my favorites stitches, slip stitch through the back loop only. Here's an example of the stitch, not the heel or the toe of course, but just the main body of the sock. It is a super stretchy, super stretchy stitch and it bounces back so nicely. So this stitch makes really nice socks, hats, anything that you need a lot of stretch and warmth 'cause it's very thick and very elastic and I love it 'cause it actually returns to shape. You can see, like I just let it go and not very many crochet stitches even if they're stretchy, a lot of them don't just bounce back like that. So I'm gonna show you on a larger scale with worsted weight yarn, how to do the stitch so it's a little easier to see. Of course, you can do this stitch with any weight of yarn. You can do it with bulky, you can do it with whatever you want. But one thing to keep in mind is that this stitch pattern it does end up getting pretty thick so it's kind of thick and spongy. So if you're making something in a garment, you're gonna wanna use a larger hook probably than you would normally use for another stitch pattern just to keep it, to give it a little bit of drape and flexibility and not make it look super stiff. But this is actually really good for ribbing around mittens, all kinds of things. So, if you're doing something like that, you'll wanna use a smaller hook. If you're making a larger scale fabric like sweater or something like that, you're gonna wanna use a bigger hook. So I'm gonna show you something in the middle of these two versions. This is a J hook. And this, I should say this one was done with an I and this one was done with an L, but everybody crochets a little bit differently. Your swatches might not look exactly like mine and that's okay, but just to give you a place to start if you're using worsted weight yarn. So first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna chain make us foundation chain. We'll just do 16. And then we'll do one extra chain for turning chain. And, I prefer to work in the back bump of my stitches, that as these little dash lines here. Those are opposite of the V stitches that we normally work under. And the reason that I do that is so that when you come to the end of your project and you look at the last where you worked and your foundation edge, they look practically identical and it gives you more options. It's just makes a nice tidy edge too. So we're gonna skip the first chain and we're gonna do, we're gonna insert our hook and then we pull the yarn through and we don't yarn over again, we just pull it through again. Insert hook, pull through, pull through. Insert hook, pull through, pull through. So this is a slip stitch and we'll get to the back loop only part that makes the ribbon on the next row. And this row can be of course, a little challenging 'cause there's not much to hang on to here, but you can do it. And this stitch pattern, it can be hard to see the first and the last stitches of the row. So I recommend when you're first starting out, or if you're watching lots of TV and you don't really wanna pay attention very much, to put a stitch marker in the beginning and in the end stitch of each row 'cause that way you'll know you're not gonna miss it. So I just did one row of slip stitches across into the bottom bump of my chain and I'm gonna chain one in turn. And I like to do my turning chains just a little tighter when I work in slip stitch, because the stitches are so short and you don't wanna have, you wanna have a nice tidy edge and that will help it. So, we're gonna be working through the back loop of your stitches. So here, if you look at the top of your stitch there's a V shape right here, that's the top of your stitch. Normally you work underneath these two stitches when you insert your hook, but this time because we're working in the back loop we're just gonna work on the loop behind here. And the back loop is called the back loop from your vantage point. So when you worked across it in this direction, it was the front loop and then surprise, you turned it and now you're looking at it from other side and now that same loop is called the back loop. So the back loop it just means the loop that's furthest away from you. So we're gonna insert our hook into that back loop, yarn over, pull it up, just like that. And one of the reasons I was so excited about demonstrating this particular stitch pattern is that I know that a lot of people have trouble. This looks so simple and maybe if you've never tried this before you think, yeah, okay, I get it. But I'm just gonna say that a lot of people get frustrated with the stitch pattern because as you're working, it is so easy to make a stitch like this and then when you pull it through. Take a look and watch what happens to this loop right here. As you're pulling it through, if you pull it through, see how it's shrinking. That loop is getting very small and what that means is every time you go back and forth, it gets tighter and tighter and tighter and smaller and smaller, and it gets very frustrating. So I know people have had a lot of trouble with this stitch because that loop gets so small. So in order to not let that happen you're going to, when you yarn over and pull up your stitch, there's two things you can do. You can kind of rotate your hook a little this way and maintain attention on that loop. See, I'm kind of pulling on that and get it to pop off until you get more used to not letting this loop get smaller. So you can turn it like that just when you're starting and you're trying to figure out how to keep the tension on that loop and not let it get smaller. See how I'm kind of turning my hook upwards to not let that loop. That's the one we're watching right there. You can do that and you can also, you can also just keep your eye on it and experiment a little bit with what makes it get tighter. When you're pulling on this loop here and you're pulling it along your piece in this direction flat, it makes it shrink like that. So I would say, if you're doing this stitch for the first time, try it and see if you can get that loop to get smaller and then you'll feel what you're doing and then be able to avoid that. So I just chained one and we're gonna turn and we're gonna go again through the back loop, yarn over, pull through, pull through here. And you can always just say to yourself okay, I just need to have a looser tension and hold my work a little more loosely and crochet a little more loosely. Well, that's really hard for some people to do that without. I mean, saying it is one thing and just being able to be loose about it, especially when you're trying a new stitch which can frustrating, it can get kind of tight and then you see that it's getting tighter and you're trying to get your hook into those stitches and then you get more worked up and then your stitches get tighter, because that's what happens. So if you look at what is actually happening to that loop right there, don't let it get small. Just pull on it like that. Alright, now we've got one more stitch here that last stitch can kind of hide a little. So, as I said before, it's a really good idea to use a stitch marker in the beginning and in the end. So now we've worked enough rows that you can kind of see what it's starting to look like, the stitch pattern. It really looks like a bunch of Vs just all lined up packed in close together. And it may be hard for you to try and figure out how to count your rows because there's just all these little lines next to each other. But if you take your swatch and you stretch it out like this, you can see that there are ridges really. And one tip, when you're trying to count your rows and you're not really sure, exactly sure. I can be hard if you count in sets of twos like this, each ribbing row would be two rows put together one down in one back makes a ridge. If you're trying to count those and you're like, is that a whole ridge or a half a ridge or what is that? I can't figure that out. One thing that I like to do is take a look at where your beginning tail is and you know you chained some on, and then you started your first row from the opposite end of where your yarn tail is. So your first row would be going in this direction here. So, you know if you ended here, if you went one row here and then back up, that would be two and then if you ended your hook here you know that you ended on an even round. So that'll help you when you're trying to add up your stitches and you're counting your rows. You know it is gonna be an even number. So if you count your ridges, you have two, four, six, eight, and 10. So we worked 10 rows of slip stitch ribbing here and you can see this edge, you can see little Vs from our foundation chain. That's why I worked into the bottom bump and this row, you also have the little Vs here too. So it's a nice way to start and end the stitch because it looks exactly the same on both sides. So if you wanted to do something like a little button tab on something or a strap, then it looks neat and tidy on both ends. So that is how you work the slip stitch through the back loop only ribbing.