As I was writing up my pattern for the spiral baby blanket, I was going to link to a tutorial on surface crochet, but I couldnt seem to find one which would be comprehensive enough, so I just thought I might as well make a quick one up.
Surface crochet is a great way to embellish both crocheted items and knitted items, it's quick and easy and you can make up the patterns as you go along. If you know how to crochet already, then this will be a walk in the park for you to learn.
Firstly you'll need a practice swatch and a contrasting colour to practice with.... and of course, a crochet hook. Here's my practice piece.... it doesn't have to be very big....
Hold your contrasting yarn behind your work so that your crochet hook can access it, I hold mine like this, but you can hold it any way you feel comfortable....
Now, pass the hook through the front of your work where you want the design to begin like this.....
Let the hook grab the yarn and pull it back through the hole, it should look like this...
Now, pass the hook through the front of your work in the next stitch space like this....
And do the same, hook the yarn through the work and you should have this.....
Now, just like ordinary crochet, you pull the new loop through the old one and you have a stitch on the surface.....
After a few stitches it should look like this...
Repeat this till the end of your work and it should look like this....
And there you have it.... you can surface crochet to your heart's content now....
