Left Hand Half Double Crochet Tutorial #16: HDC Increasing When Working in Rows

Hi everyone, it's Deja from CrochetEverAfter.com and I'm going to show you how to increase in half double crochet when you're working in rows. This is going to be a great technique for any kind of shaping Alright, we're going to increase that you need to do. and half-double crochet when we're working in the row. Right now I have five half-double crochets for my project. The chain two is counting as a stitch. And that's important to know when you're working any patterns above single crochet, Thank you. Many times the chain two may not count as a stitch, or it will, depending on the designer and what they're designing. So it's important to know if that counts or not, and I'm going to show you how to increase knowing whether it counts or not, so you have both ways to do it. First I'm going to show you how to increase at the beginning of your row if your chain two counts as a stitch. So, it should be pointed out in the pattern that it does. Hopefully, the designer told you whether or not it counts as a stitch. When it does count as a stitch and you're increasing in the first stitch of your row, what you're going to do is you're going to chain two for your height, and that's also going to count as your first stitch. So, to increase, you're going to just do another double crochet in that first stitch. Super easy increase. Because that first chain two counts as one. So that's a really simple increase in half double crochet. Now, if the chain two didn't count as a stitch, and they're telling you to increase in your first stitch, or they're telling you to half double crochet two times in your first stitch, Then, to actually do an increase, all you're going to do is just do another half double crochet in the same stitch. So you just find your stitch again. It's very easy because the first half double crochet is kind of pulling on it, and you can see the hole easily. Go under both loops, pull up your loop, and finish off your half double crochet. So now you have an actual increase of two half double crochets. We're going to pretend that our chain two counted as a stitch and work across this row and increase on our last stitch. And what this does, when we increase on our first stitch and our last stitch, what we end up getting if we did it every single row is a triangular shape because our increases are going to, let me try to fit that in, are going to go like this. They're going to just V out. If I only increased on one side, I would have a straight edge and then an increase coming out this way. So it would still be kind of triangular, but a different type of triangle. And my geometry brain is not working right now, so I can't think of the name of that triangle. Otherwise, I would tell you that. So I have worked across my half double crochets, and I'm at my last stitch. And this is why I wanted to count my chain 2 as a stitch, because my last stitch is this chain 2. So to increase into it, I need to do two half-double crochets into the chain two. So I just yarn over and do my first one, and I always like to catch two loops, because it keeps it from making this big hole, just pulling one chain, one loop of my chain. So you can see it's starting to V out. Now, if I were to increase just in the center of my work, I would get Kind of a square shape. It would start to kind of curve around and make like a granny square. That's kind of how you start your squares, because you would increase and it would start turning like this. But let's show you an increase in the middle of the row. So I chain two, I'm counting that as my first stitch, so I skip this first stitch right here. And always remember, these loops here look like your chain loops. That you work under, but they're just the front of the half double crochet. So here's my first stitch I'm skipping. Then a half double crochet into this next stitch. Then I'm going to increase on the next stitch. So the pattern may say, chain two, half double crochet in your next stitch. And then increase in your next stitch, or half double crochet two times in your next stitch. So I'm going to just insert my hook to my first half double crochet. Insert my hook again, and half double crochet again. You can also increase in just your front loop or just your back loop. There's many different ways to do increases depending on your pattern and what they are trying to accomplish. They'll tell you different things. But being able, all you're really doing is wherever it tells you to increase, you're just putting two half double crochets into that stitch. Very simple. Um, but once you learn, and it's good to make swatches of different types, you know, just increase on one side and see what happens, increase on both ends, increase in the middle, just make a bunch of swatches and you can see all the different stuff that happens and you can design different things with that. That's how you're going to increase and half double crochet.