How to: Crochet Ribbing with Front Post & Back Post Double Crochet! -

So, how adorable is this hat with this cute ribbed brim? We use front post and back post double crochets to create it. I am super in love with it! I especially love the thick and thin stripes too. What’s your favourite part?

So this is a hat I made for my youngest daughter as her newborn baby hat for the hospital. I added a flower, and its the one she wore for the first month! (Pssst, she’s now 6 yrs old!)

I think we have to do some flower posts/patterns soon! Stay tuned!

Anyway, this post is actually about the ribbing that we created as the brim of that hat. Now, you can absolutely make a bottom up hat, with a slip stitch ribbing, which we’ll be making in the next crochet post, but this one we’ve done in a top-down fashion. So, if you signed up below for our free pattern for a crochet hat, then this style of ribbing can be a great add-on for that as well.

Front Post Double Crochet

So, in our previous post, we made the waffle stitch dishcloth using our Front Post Double Crochet (FPDC). The pic at left shows the difference between the FPDC and a standard dc. The lifted stitches are our FPDC and the low ones are the standard dc.

To get started making this stitch, you need to start with a row of stitches first, like double crochet. To begin the row, start with a chain 2, then, we yarn over our hook, then insert your hook around the body of the dc from the row below (as in the image below).

Be sure to bring the hook out, on the front side of your work, and yarn over draw a loop up, and yarn over and draw through 2 loops, twice to finish off the double crochet.

The pic at right shows the difference between the front post on the right and the back post on the left.

So, lets do the back post!

Back Post Double Crochet

So, for this stitch, we’re going to work around the same area as the front post, but from the back side this time.

To make it, we’re going to turn over our work, so in the image at left, the top is toward the front, then we’ll insert our crochet hook around the post of the stitch, from right to left. From the front you’ll see the metal of the hook going over the post of the stitch.

Yarn over your hook, and finish your double crochet.

Ribbing

Now, when you crochet as a 2×2 ribbing (2 front post followed by 2 back post, repeating), it doesn’t look like much. Its not stretchy, or particularly nice looking, but when you make 1×1 ribbing, with 1 front post and 1 back post alternating, it looks quite nice. I’ve done it as the lower edge of a hat, or in a main body, with some single crochets as the bottom.

What are you going to make with FPDC & BPDC?

Watch the video here: