How to Crochet Slip Stitch: A Beginner's Guide

A slip stitch is the shortest stitch in crochet, and it does a lot of quiet work. It moves your yarn along, it closes loops, and it holds pieces together at the end. Learn this one small movement, and you can follow far more patterns. Closing a round on a hat, pulling a starting chain into a ring for a granny square, neatening a wobbly edge, none of it happens without a slip stitch. For a stitch you barely notice in the finished piece, you will reach for it on almost every project.

Key Takeaways

• The slip stitch is short, flat, and adds almost no height to your work.

• One quick movement makes it: hook in, yarn over, pull through everything on the hook.

• It handles four main jobs, from joining rounds to drawing patterns on the surface.

• It comes out too tight for almost every beginner, and the fix takes seconds.

• It clicks fastest when you practise on a real project you want to keep.

What is a Slip Stitch in Crochet

The slip stitch is one of the six basic crochet stitches, and it is the shortest of them all. It sits low and flat, so it barely lifts the work upward. That low height is why a slip stitch crochet move rarely builds fabric by itself. You bring it in around other stitches to do a specific job.

Because it is short and quick to make, the slip stitch works for beginners as an early confidence builder before the taller stitches arrive.

A few markers help you spot it in a pattern:

• Abbreviation: UK patterns write it as "ss" and US patterns write it as "sl st", so the same stitch turns up under two names.

• Chart symbol: a small filled dot.

• Turning chain: one chain to begin a new row, and it does not count as a stitch.

How To Crochet a Slip Stitch Step-by-Step

The movement takes three small steps, and they stay the same every time you crochet a slip stitch. Follow them slowly the first few times, and your hands will pick up the rhythm before long.

Step 1: Insert your hook

Push the hook through the next stitch, under both loops at the top. Going under both loops keeps the row even and easy to read.

Step 2: Yarn over

Wrap the yarn over the hook from back to front, the same wrap you use for other stitches.

Step 3: Pull through everything

Draw that loop of yarn back through the stitch and straight through the loop already on your hook, all in one motion. One loop stays on the hook, and your first slip stitch is done.

Repeat those three steps along the row, and you will see the slip stitches lie flat, adding almost no height as you go.

Four Ways To Use The Slip Stitch

Once the movement feels steady, the same little slip stitch takes on four different jobs in crochet. Here is what each one does and where you will meet it.

1. Joining rounds

This is the most common use you will meet. When you work a shape in a circle, you close each round by working a slip stitch to join the last stitch back to the first, dropping the hook into that first stitch or into a ch-1 space. 

It is also how a plain chain becomes a ring at the very start. Hats, granny squares, and mandalas all rely on this join, and it is the move that lets you crochet in the round with a neat, closed edge on every row.

2. Slip stitch edging

Run a line of slip stitches around the outside of a finished piece and you get a clean, tidy border. Work one slip stitch into each stitch along the top and bottom, and space them evenly down the sides. 

The row sits flat and firm, which helps stop edges curling and gives blankets, coasters, and bags a proper finished look. The same stitch also seams two pieces together when you hold them side by side, though that is a guide of its own.

3. Surface slip stitch

Here the slip stitch becomes decorative. You work it on top of a finished fabric, drawing the yarn up through the surface to lay lines, letters, and simple patterns across your work. 

Hold the yarn behind the fabric, bring a loop up through to the front, and travel across in the direction you want your line to go. A contrasting colour makes the design stand out, and it adds detail without any sewing.

4. Moving along a row

Sometimes a pattern needs you to shift a few stitches sideways without climbing higher, and the slip stitch does exactly that. Work a small run of slip stitches across the tops of the next stitches, then carry on with your taller stitches from the new spot. 

This is how patterns shape a shoulder or a neckline, moving your starting point along the row so the edge steps inward cleanly.

Why Your Slip Stitch is Too Tight and How To Fix It

Almost every beginner works the slip stitch too tight at first, and there is a simple reason. The stitch is short and low, so the loop has little room, and it is easy to pull it down hard without noticing. A tight slip stitch drags the whole edge in and makes the next round a struggle to work into.

A few small changes loosen things up:

• Go up a hook size for the slip stitch section, then switch back to your usual hook afterwards.

• Keep the loop on the hook relaxed. Do not yank it down after each stitch, let it sit soft.

• Ease your grip on the yarn hand so the yarn feeds through gently.

• Push the hook all the way in before you pull, so you are not fighting through half a loop.

These habits carry over to every stitch you make, so learning to fix your crochet tension gives you neater rounds and tidier edges in other patterns too. Loosen the slip stitch and the rest of your crochet feels easier straight away.

Ready To Make Your First Companion?

Want the slip stitch to click for good? Make it on something you actually want to hold at the end. 

Our kits come pre-started and packed with everything you need, the right hook, beginner-friendly yarn, a stitch marker, stuffing, and slow step-by-step video tutorials that cover every stitch from the very first loop. No hunting for supplies, no worrying about hook sizes.

Pick a companion you love, grab a starter crochet kit, and practise the slip stitch on a make you will want to keep.

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