How to Foundation Half-Double Crochet

I’ve been working on some Christmas gifts these past few weeks. My husband and I both got Covid-19 so we’ve been stuck at home together 😉 And we’ve been using this time to get some Christmas gifts made and some housework done. It’s actually been kind of nice!

I love crocheting and this year, I decided to make some cup cozies for stocking stuffers. Crocheted cup cozies are a great gift topper or stocking stuffer. They’re not expensive and they don’t take too long to make and – homemade gifts are always special! The yarn I used here is this yarn from Hobby Lobby.

I started out a cup cozy as usual – chaining X amount of stitches and then turning it and going back and half double crocheting in the chain. But I didn’t like the look of it and I didn’t like how the chain always seems to be a different tightness than the rest of the project.

So, I decided to try something different. I attempted to do a Foundation Half Double Crochet. And oh my goodness, why haven’t I done this before?? It made it ten times easier and I love the way it looks!

It’s fairly easy once you get the hang of it.

Start off by making a slip knot and chaining three stitches (FYI that’s all the chaining you’ll do in this foundation row).

Yarn over and insert the hook into the first chain you made.

Pull the yarn through so you have three loops on your hook.

Now yarn over and pull through the first loop only (this is your ‘foundation chain stitch’ – remember that!).

Yarn over and pull through all three stitches on your hook.

That’s your first Foundation Half-Double Crochet stitch. It should look as pictured above.

For the second stitch, yarn over and insert the hook in the ‘foundation chain stitch’ that you made (remember when I told you to remember this stitch? 😉 ). If you can’t remember which stitch it is, find the single ‘V’ next to the three loops of the half double.