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Hi everyone! Welcome to another Tip Tuesday! Today, I’m going to talk about an instruction that is common in crochet, but only pops up once in a while when making amigurumi. Tiffany emailed and asked:

[The pattern said] “Ch 11. [next row]: turn, sc twice in 2nd ch from hook…” I was just a tiny bit confused. Can you clarify that for me please?

Of course! First of all, I should explain why this particular instruction is fairly rare in making amigurumi. It’s because, for most amigurumi, the pieces are crocheted in rounds, and you begin with a very few number of starting chains. And many patterns are worked in spiral rounds, meaning that you’ll rarely turn your work.

However, there are some pieces where you will crochet in rows when crocheting amigurumi: such as the oval-shaped snout of a hippo or the beak of a duck. So, now that we know you’ll encounter this instruction occasionally… let’s talk about what it tells you to do!

The first part of the instruction we’re investigating tells you to ‘ch 11’, which means that you should chain eleven times. (Not sure how to chain? Check out our video on how to do the chain stitch). If you’re a right-handed person, new stitches will be created to the right (in the direction of the arrow). If you’re a left-handed person, reverse everything that you’re about to read!

Now, the next part of the instruction says, ‘turn, sc in 2nd ch from hook’. When you only have a little chain, the ‘turn’ instruction can be confusing… it basically means that you want to get your new stitches going in the other way. (When you turn after completing the first row of crocheting, you really do physically turn the work around… but the motion isn’t as obvious on the chain stitches). So, we want to make our stitches go from right to left (in the direction of the arrow), and find out which stitch is the 2nd from the hook. In the photo below, you can see that I’ve circled the stitches with a red circle (you can click to enlarge the photo). The loop on the hook doesn’t count, the first chain that you see is the ‘1st ch’, and so we want to crochet into the next one!

So, you single crochet into that 2nd chain from the hook… and keep going!

And here’s how it looks! Yippee!

Thanks so much, Tiffany, for emailing in your question! If you guys in the blog-o-sphere have any more… send them my way!