‘How to …’ Crochet Tutorial – Special Slip Stitch

This website uses US crochet terminology. Please refer to the US-UK terminology chart to translate US terminology into UK terms.

What is a Special Slip Stitch?

On some occasions, the first and last stitch of the round is a special stitch. When this is the case, a special slip stitch (sss) is made to connect the beginning of the round with its end.

Why use a stitch that is worked from the opposite side?

A special slip stitch closes the gap when a special stitch is the last stitch in a round.

How to work a Special Slip Stitch

The special slip stitch (sss) is worked slightly differently than a normal slip stitch, as it is a continuation of the special stitch before the slip stitch.

Before making the last special stitch, bring the yarn in front of the work, then insert the hook from back to front under the top loops of the first stitch we made in this row (this is the stitch that we would normally slip stitch into; 3 loops on hook).

With the hook still inserted through the last stitch, work the special stitch as you normally would just before the final ‘pull through’. (i.e. tr in indicated FLO; 3 loops + 2 yo on hook)

The final pull is usually made through 2 loops: the one that was on the hook when you made the previous stitch (1) and the last loop of the stitch you just made (4). Here, for the sss, you will have the 2 top loops (2 & 3) of the stitch through which you inserted the hook in between these 2 loops (4 loops on hook).

To complete the stitch, yo and pull through all 4 loops

Instead of working a padding stitch behind the special stitch (which is not possible anymore, since there are no free front loops left to work into, but also not necessary, because there is no gap either), we can now just simply work over the stitch as normal (indicated) in the next round.