Vertical Surface Chain

Adding texture and color to a project with surface crochet or crochet embroidery can be both fun and easy to do. Vertical crochet surface chains can be added to just about any crochet project, and in this video, Mary Beth Temple demonstrates two ways to add this embellishment to a piece.

Mary Beth begins with a slip knot on her crochet hook. She is using a hook that is slightly smaller than the hook that was used to make the swatch. With the slip knot on the hook, Mary Beth brings the working yarn to the back (or Wrong Side) of the piece. The working yarn will remain on the Wrong Side of the piece as the chain is created.

For the vertical surface chain, the stitches are worked into stitches in a vertical column, making it relatively easy to see where to work the next stitch. Mary Beth inserts the crochet hook into the stitch and works a yarn over onto the hook from back to front on the Wrong Side of the fabric. She pulls this loop through the fabric and through the slip knot on her hook to create a slip stitch and attach the yarn to the crocheted fabric. Mary Beth continues working the vertical by bringing the crochet hook down through the next stitch and working a slip stitch.

To make things super simple, Mary Beth also demonstrates how to work the vertical surface chain when chain-1 spaces are created in the swatch fabric. The slipped stitches for the vertical surface chain are created in each of these spaces, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of where the crochet hook needs to go when working.

Once the crochet embellishment is complete, Mary Beth trims the yarn, leaving a four-to-six-inch tail to weave in at a later time. She pulls the yarn tail through the last stitch to secure the chain and then brings the tail through the same spot where the last stitch was worked. This brings the tail to the Wrong Side to be woven in.