Stacked or Staggered?

Posted byAzariah Fibre ArtsPosted incrochetTags:, ,

When working in single crochets, increases and decreases are more pronounced than they are when working with some other stitches.

Sometimes this can be help and other times it is a distraction from the finished piece.

Stacked decreases in single crochets.

Helpful when choosing where to place legs on your amigurumi, distracting on the top of a hat that now looks like it has a swirl.

Stacked increases in half double crochets.

How to decide when to use which will only take a couple of minutes and is as simple as answering a couple of questions.

  1. Will being able to see the lines distract from the design?
  2. Will I be able to attach other parts of the project without the lines, easily?

If you answered “yes” to either of the questions above, you might want to consider using staggered increases and/or decreases.

If you want to use the opposite of what the pattern indicates, you will have a small amount of work ahead of you. I have an example below of how to do it, but you will need to rewrite that section of the pattern so that you can execute it easily.

Stacked increases in single crochets.

Stacked Increases

Make a ring, and work 6 sc in the ring. These rounds will NOT be joined.

2. 2 sc in each sc around. 12 sc

3. (2 sc in the next sc, sc in the next sc) around. 18 sc

4. (2 sc in the next sc, sc in the next 2 sc) around. 24 sc

5. (2 sc in the next sc, sc in the next 3 sc) around. 30 sc

6. (2 sc in the next sc, sc in the next 4 sc) around. 36 sc

7. (2 sc in the next sc, sc in the next 5 sc) around. 42 sc

Staggered Increases

Make a ring, and work 6 sc in the ring. These rounds will NOT be joined.

2. 2 sc in each sc around. 12 sc

3. (2 sc in the next sc, sc in the next sc) around. 18 sc

4. (sc in the next 2 sc, 2 sc in the next sc) around. 24 sc

5. (2 sc in the next sc, sc in the next 3 sc) around. 30 sc

6. (sc in the next 3 sc, 2 sc in the next sc, sc in the next sc) around. 36 sc

7. (2 sc in the next sc, sc in the next 5 sc) around. 42 sc

A really great way to understand this is to graph it out. I’m not going to do it for you because the actual act of doing it is what made it click for me.

Let me know how it goes in the comments.

Happy Making!

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