Monday, November 7, 2011

Stitch Tutorial: FPDC & BPDC

So, with my blog becoming more popular, I'm getting more and more requests for video's & photo tutorials. I don't think I have the energy/patience for video tutorials, but I can take pix of my work to try and help you out.

(In these photos, I'm working 2 strands of green yarn together as one, to make my 30-minute hat, so please keep this in mind when looking at it.)

Both of these stitches MUST BEGIN with a row/round of regular dc sts prior to starting the row/rnd that is fpdc/bpdc.


Front Post Double Crochet (FPDC):

This stitch is essentially a plain dc st, but instead of putting your hook into the stitch as you normally would, you put it behind the "post" of the dc directly below that st. 


Insert your Hook behind the "post" of the dc that is directly below where you would normally make your dc stitch.

Yarn over, as with a normal dc.

Pull the yarn through, behind the "post" of the dc. This pushes the stitch from the previous row/rnd to the front of your work also.

As with your normal dc, yo again, and complete the dc st as normal. You may want to do this a little loosely until you get used to doing fpdc sts, as they tend to be bulkier sts in general.

Back Post Double Crochet (BPDC):

This stitch is the inverse of the FPDC. Again, it is a dc st that is essentially worked around the post of the dc below where you would normally put your st. This time, however, you will be putting your hook in front of that stitch, pushing it to the back of the work.

Insert your hook from the back of your work to the front, to the right of the dc that you're going to work with. This should be the "post" that lies directly below the st where you would normally put your st.

Push the hook over the post of that dc, and to then the back of your work (using the space to the left of the dc's post). In this photo, the post of the dc is hidden behind the hook, as it should be with your work

Yarn over, and pull the loop all the way through to the front, so that you're left with 3 loops on your hook. This pushes the dc st from the previous row/rnd to the back of your work.

Yarn over and complete the dc st as you normally would.

Alternating your FPDC and BPDC sts can create a ribbed effect. It also tightens up your stitches, while at the same time adding a stretchy quality, so its great for the bottom of hats or the tops of socks/leggings. Some patterns will have you add FPDC sts only, and this creates a line of ribbing that is on the front side of your material only.

If you are new to crochet, and trying to learn many stitches, I HIGHLY recommend you buy the book "Stitch and Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker". It has great instructions with pictures on how to do almost every stitch you'll ever need, along with how to read patterns, how to read stitch grids, how to troubleshoot your work, and some basic patterns to help you get started. No, I'm not associated with the book/publishers/author in any way. I just love the book, and all the crochetters in my local craft group reference it constantly.

7 comments:

  1. This was a VERY HELPFUL Direction to both of these stitches....I THANKYOU very much....It is amazing what a couple of new stitches will add to the crochet projects at hand....
    Happy New Year 2012
    KEN

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really want to learn how to do this. I get confused with which stitch to grab. Going to give it a try this weekend!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your instructions made this so easy and I love the outcome. I made your 30 minute hat in 30 mins! Thanks for sharing the pattern.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you, your instructions are the clearest I found. I was struggling with the bpdc, but not any more :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am currently working on some hat ribbing that uses BPDC in the round. Each round starts with a ch 2 (ch 2, fpdc around each dc, join to top of ch 2). My problem is that the seam is very obvious. Any way to avoid this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hard to say without seeing your work. Maybe sl st into the top of the first actual stitch of the round, as opposed to the top of the ch2.

      Delete
  6. I am working on a pattern where you do a hdc then a bpdc, my question is on the second row when you turn the work would you go down to the former rows bpdc and make the new bpdc ?

    ReplyDelete