Moss Stitch

Hi, I'm Brenda Kay Anderson and I wanna share with you how to work the most. So, this gigantic scarf here is made in the, it is a reversible fabric and it is a very bumpy. It has all these characteristic little kind of lines going on both sides um that give it really great fun texture. Um And it is something that I use a lot for things like dishcloths, wash cloths, things that you wanna have a little bit numbly and you also want them to be reversible. So you don't have to worry about, you know, which side is showing. All right. So one of the great things about the stitch is it is a very straightforward. It's easy to do. You just do the same row repeat over and over to work the stitch. You will need an even number of stitches plus one stitch. So I know you probably did a little math there and you thought, OK, that's an odd number of stitches. Why is she calling it an even number of stitches? It's because I want to give you the idea of the even number of stitches. Those are the stitches you're gonna be working across and then that extra little stitch at the end that's going to be counting as your turning chain. OK. Which does not count as a stitch. Uh At least the way that I do it, I don't like to count it as a stitch. All right. So we are gonna chain about 10 stitches. 456789, 10. Let's just chain two more for fun. One and two. So now we have an even number of stitches. We have 12 and then I'm going to add one more that's gonna count as just a turning chain. Then you can choose to work into your chain. However, you normally like to work into your chain. I always love working into the bottom of my chain. It's easier for me to get my hook underneath that bottom bump. And I just really like the neat and tidy edge that the top of the chain creates um on the edge of your piece. So I'm gonna just roll that over so that I see all these little horizontal dashes and I'm gonna work underneath those. So I'm gonna skip the first stitch which is right here and I'm gonna work underneath that second dash. So I'm gonna yarn over, insert yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through three. That is a half, double crochet stitch. That is your first stitch. The next stitch will be a slip stitch. So you're just going to insert your hook underneath the next stitch, yarn over, pull up your loop and continue pulling that loop through the loop on your hook. So now we have a half, double crochet and a slip stitch. And now we're going to repeat those two stitches all the way across our row. So we're gonna yarn over insert yarn over, pull up, yarn over, pull through three. That's our half double crochet. And then we're gonna make a slip stitch into the next stitch. And we'll repeat that you're an over insert, you're an over pull up, you're an over pull through three. There's our half double crochet and here is our slip stitch, right. So we would just continue repeating those two stitches all the way across our row. All right. And here we are ending with one slip stitch in the very last stitch. And then we are going to turn our work. So we're gonna do one chain uh one turning chain right here. So we're just gonna chain one and then we're gonna turn our work like we're turning a page in a book so we can work across the back of, of our work. So you might see already these little bars right here, those kind of stick out a little bit. Those are the half double crochet, stitches on the back side that makes these really nice diagonal bars. And that's what creates such a great texture in the stitch pattern. So we're gonna start again by working a half, double crochet. And I should also note some people like to add two turning chains for a stitch. That's a half, double crochet stitch height. Um I usually do one but for sure on this ma stitch pattern, I would go for one stitch as your turning chain. Even though that first stitch is going to be, always be a half, double crochet stitch. The last stitch that you made was a slip stitch. So if you kind of take the, the average of a half, double crochet height and the slip stitch height and you get about a single crochet height where you would do one turning chain if that makes sense. So that's how I kind of arrived at that. It just seems to be about the perfect height for my turning chain um when I'm working in the most. All right. So we have that one turning chain and we're gonna start with a half, double crochet. So we yarn over, insert into that first stitch yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through three and then the next stitch, we'll be working a single crochet. I mean a slip stitch crochet, sorry. So we'll just insert our hook yarn over, pull up, loop and pull that loop through the loop on the hook. That's our slip stitch. So we have a half, double crochet and a slip stitch. Now we're gonna repeat those two stitches all the way across. There's our half, double crochet, there is our slip stitch and our half double crochet on our slip stitch and we will just continue doing that all the way across our row. All right, we have reached the end of our row landing in that last stitch. We've got a, a slip stitch in that very last stitch and then we are going to chain one and turn our work. So now you can see those dashes across this side and from that last row of those half, double crochets, we worked. All right. So we're going to just continue working in that one row stitch repeat. We're always going to begin with a half, double crochet right here and then we'll do a slip stitch after that, alternating back and forth half, double crochet slip stitch. So if you ever lose your place as you are working across, just know that you are always placing half, double crochets into the slip stitches from the previous row and vice versa. So you'll be placing a slip stitch into the half, double crochets from the previous row. So for example, one of the reasons I keep pointing out these little dashes that can help you keep track of where you're at. So this right here is the back side of a half, double crochet stitch. So even if you lost track of where you were at, you would look at the stitch and see that bar and think, OK, I'll put a slip stitch in the top of that stitch right there. And then here's the next stitch there isn't a bar in this stitch. So we just work a half, double crochet here. So we're just alternating every other row. Um We do, you know, we do continue to start with a half, double crochet and end with a slip stitch. And that might seem a little confusing at first because we're placing the opposite stitch into the stitch from the previous row. For example, you know, in the half, double crochets from the previous row, we're putting the slip stitches, but that's because we're alternating and turning our work. So here we've landed with that slip stitch in the very last stitch. And then as we chain one and we turn, there's our slip stitch at the very end and we are gonna start with a half double crochet in that slip stitch. So I will work just a couple more rows and then we will talk a little bit about counting your rows. All right. So I have worked a couple more rows here and now you can see the pattern is starting to emerge. We have all these lovely little diagonal dashes um kind of popping out of our work. It is on both sides here, I'll turn it a little bit like this so you can see them kind of raised up and it is on this side as well. And then the way that you're going to count your rows in the stitch pattern. So I mentioned, of course, these are your half, double crochets and you only see that on the back side of your work. So we have worked uh stitches across the front of the side down here that you can't see those dashes unless you flip it over, see how close they are to the bottom. So that would be one row here on the bottom two and then three would be in between. There is a dash on the back side of that right there. So that would be 345 and six. So we have worked six rows in the age pattern. Um So that's just how you count up your stitches and in your rows and then you know where you're at in your pattern. Well, I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial. I am excited for you guys to be making your own age projects. Thank you so much for joining me.