How to Foundation Stitch
Do you love to crochet but dread the chaining? I am not going to lie I love everything crochet except the foundation chain. As a beginner, I cannot tell you how many hours I’d spent chaining and undoing the chain to start all over again because my stitches were either too tight or too loose. The worst thing is when you get to the end of your first row and realize you made a mistake in your foundation chain, that you have to undo a lot of your work to fix the mistake.
What if I told you there is a technique that replaces the dreaded foundation chain? You only have to chain 2 to 4 stitches to start your project. With this technique, you will be able to work your foundation chain and your first row at the same time. 
When I stumbled upon this technique a few years back, I didn’t believe what I was reading. I immediately Googled it and found a YouTube video. I had to see this to believe it. I was blown away! I now use this technique for all of my projects; I very rarely chain now.
This game changing technique is called the foundation stitch. There are foundation stitches for each of the standard stitches – single, half double crochet, double crochet, etc. The foundation stitch consists of one chain and one standard crochet stitch. The foundation stitch solves so many of the problems crocheters run into when starting their projects. Tension is one of the major problems because it can cause your foundation chain to curl and not lay flat. If your foundation isn’t right it will throw off the rest of your project; miscounting stitches is another problem too but, with this technique you can adjust your stitches right away instead of having to undo any of your work. Once you master this technique, you will see how much time it will save you.
To implement this into a crochet pattern that has been written the traditional way, you would only foundation stitch as many stitches that are called for in the first row of the pattern; not the number of chains for starting the pattern. This may look complicated but, after you try it a few times, you will get the hang of it and never look back.
In addition to these instructions, I have tutorial videos to help you learn the foundation for both the single crochet stitch and the half double crochet stitch, if you’d rather learn that way.
If you have any questions, leave comments below or at the bottom of each of the instruction pages. I will be glad to help you.
7 Comments
Kelly Taylot
Love this post….dislike chaining 😉
Kelly Taylor
Love this post….dislike chaining 😉
Judi
Love this! My problem is the math on converting a pattern or a stitch pattern that says ‘multiples of x + y’ (written for a traditional foundation chain instruction). I’m tired of trial and error and need help with a formula or such. Can you help me out? tia!
Nicky
I understand! The way that I look at it is that additional (+y) is for your turning chain and they usually count that as the first stitch in the row. I don’t do my patterns this way because I don’t like the way that they look. I usually just convert to the foundation chain stitches and work the number of chains that you need for the second Row of the pattern.
Kimberly
I don’t do this very often and of course whenever I need to I can never remember how. So having this resource from you is very helpful! Thank you.
Suzanne Haben
Hello, I just stumbled upon this and I’m eager to know more. I was learning over this past weekend from a friend of mine. With this virus going around she and I are forced to be at home so I have no one to help me. My problem is after doing the slip knot my foundation row is straight down and off to the side it’s not in a regular row as done traditionally I think it’s because my hands don’t know how to do this and it is my very first time learning it too. I tried knitting when I was 15 or 16 years old but unfortunately I couldn’t finish due to the fact my supplies belonged to a teacher at my school. I moved to the high school eventually and she moved out of state and we haven’t seen one another since 2003 the day I graduated. So long story short I’m not very coordinated. If you can help me I’d greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much!
Nicky
Hey Suzanne! I will be glad to help you! The foundation stitches were tricky for me to learn at first too. Did you see my video tutorials? I am more of a visual learner so videos help me so much. I would be happy to do a live video so we can chat as I help you. If you are interested, just shoot me an email and we can set up a time that works for both of us. My email is nicky@averylanecreations.com I work full time in a pharmacy, so it may be this weekend or one evening before I can get set up to do a live video. I look forward to chatting with you.