How to Corner-To-Corner Crochet (C2C) For Beginners Video Tutorial

Hey there, this is Jess from Make & Do Crew, and this is the first in a series of videos I'm doing on corner-to-corner crochet. And in this video tutorial, we're going to learn the basic corner-to-corner stitch using double crochet. So the way that corner-to-corner works is exactly how it sounds. Instead of working back and forth in horizontal rows, you're going to work diagonally building longer and longer rows until you reach a corner like this, at which point you'll begin decreasing and working shorter and shorter rows. The corner-to-corner stitch can be used to crochet with or without a chart. It's often used to create graphgans, which are afghan patterns that are made from graphs. And you can switch colors mid-row as a graph calls for, or you can always work in one solid color. For simplicity's sake, today we're going to be using one color so that we can focus on the stitch itself. You can use any weight of yarn for the corner-to-corner stitch, but we're going to use this worsted weight Vanna's Choice yarn by Lion Brand because it really works well for graphgans. Each project always begins with increasing, so I'm going to show you that first. And what I mean by increasing is that in the first row we're going to create one tile like this, and then the next row we're going to create two, so we will have increased by one. The next row will be three, the next row will be four, and we're going to continue like that until we get to the space where we want to make a corner, at which point we'll start decreasing, and each row will have one fewer tile. To work the corner-to-corner stitch, we need to start with six chains. So I have six here on my hook, and I'm going to double crochet into the fourth chain from the hook. So I yarn over and place one double crochet there, and then I'm going to double crochet in the last two chains of this row. So that first turning chain counts as one double crochet, so this little tile should have four total double crochets because we're counting that turning chain. All right, we have our first tile here, and this is going to be the corner of our project. So at the end of every increase row, I'm going to chain six, and that's going to be the foundation for the new increase stitch in the next row. So I have one, two, three, four, five, six here. So now I'm going to turn this, and this is the corner. I need to make two more tiles for this row, so that's going to go right here and right here. So I will yarn over, and just like we did before, I'm going to place my hook in the fourth chain from the hook and complete a double crochet, and then I'm going to work two more double crochets, one in each of the remaining chains. So I have these two tiles now. They're just kind of hanging out, and we need to connect them together. That's going to be done with a slip stitch that's going to be worked into this turning chain here from the previous row. So I'm going to insert my hook here, yarn over, and just pull the yarn through to make a slip stitch. And now they're connected, so if you remember, I said we're going to need to work another tile right up here. So to do that, we don't need to chain six because we've already done our increase tile, so now we just need to make regular tiles. And to do that, we chain three, and then we're going to place three double crochets in this turning chain from the previous row. So we've got one, two, and three. Here's our corner. This is row one. Row two now has two tiles, and we're ending just like we did in row one. So we're going to chain six, and then turn our work again. If you notice, we're always keeping our fabric on the same side, even though we're turning back and forth. For me, because I'm right-handed, it's always hanging out in my left hand here. If you're left-handed, it's going to be like this, where you're always working back and forth with the fabric in your right hand. And that's just important because you will have a right side and a wrong side to your projects, but in this case, it doesn't really matter because we're only using one color. To work row three, I'm going to work again into the fourth chain from the hook, which is right here. I'm going to place a double crochet there, and then double crochet in the last two chains of this little row. So once again, we have one tile here that we've increased, and it's just hanging out on its own. So we're going to slip stitch into the turning chain of the tile from row two, and yarn over, pull that yarn through. So now we've connected that new tile. And now, just like a staircase, we're going to place one more tile here, and one more here, for a total of three tiles in row three. So I'm going to chain three, yarn over, and place three double crochets in that turning chain. So now again, we have this tile that's just hanging out on its own, and we need to connect it to the previous row. So I'm going to insert my hook in this turning chain, yarn over, and pull my yarn through to make a slip stitch. So once again, I've connected that tile to the last row. And once more, I need to chain three, and double crochet three in that turning chain. All right, so we have one, two, three tiles now. And because we're at the end of the row, we need to chain six. And then we'll turn our work. Now in this row, we're going to work four tiles. When we finish this row, we will learn how to decrease. Again, we're going to work into the fourth chain from the hook, and then we're going to double crochet in the two remaining chains, so that we have a total of one turning chain, and three double crochet. And then we need to join that tile to the previous row. So I'm going to slip stitch, pull my yarn through, and then we're going to make three more tiles in this row. So after you do the increase tile, your next tiles are always going to start just with the chain three, and then the three double crochets in the turning chain. It's only that first one that begins with six chains. Okay, so we have a new tile here. We need to just slip stitch it to that turning chain. And then we're going to chain three. I kind of like to fold this down, because it doesn't get in my way then as I'm working. So I can clearly see this turning chain, where I'm going to place three double crochets. And when I've completed three double crochets, I'm going to slip stitch to the next tile to join it. And then I'm going to chain three. This is going to be our last tile of this row. So you may wonder, how do I know that I'm done with a row? And it's because I've made it to the top of the staircase, and I've reached the last tile. I have nowhere else to work, and I've created this straight line along the edge here. So now I know that it's time, if I'm going to continue increasing, I'm going to chain six, turn it, and repeat as we have been. Instead, we're going to learn how to decrease next. So we're going to start rounding this out, so that we can have a complete square. Decreasing in corner-to-corner crochet is a little bit different than how you think of decreasing in regular crochet. And that's because decreasing simply means that you're just not increasing anymore. So if you remember, as we were increasing, we were adding one tile per row. For decreasing, we're just going to stop adding one tile per row. And what that is going to do is make each row one tile shorter. So we have here four, so the next row should be three tiles long. And if you're working from a graph, you're going to start decreasing when you hit this corner here. So you would have worked all of these rows, you'd get to this corner, and then by decreasing, you're going to start to create this top edge. Instead of going up more this way, you're going to create this top edge, and you're going to work all of these rows until ultimately you just have one tile left in the corner. And even if you're not working from a graph, the same thing goes, where we're going to round out the top edge and create the second half of the square. So instead of chaining six this time, I'm going to chain one, and then turn my work around. And I'm going to slip stitch in the top of each of these double crochets, to move my yarn over to this first step. So we've got one, two, three, four. The fourth one is in that last turning chain there. Here, we're in the exact same position we were during other steps in increasing, if you kind of recognize this position. We're just going to chain three, just like we did to create the tiles in increasing. So from chaining three, I'm going to yarn over and double crochet three into that turning chain. And as you can see, we've created a little edge here, but we need to attach this tile. So I'm going to insert my hook in the turning chain and slip stitch that together. And from here, we're going to work the rest of this row just like we did previously. So that's chaining three, and then three double crochet in the turning chain. And I'm working here two more tiles. Okay, this is an important point that we're at in our work here. I've worked the last tile here, and I'm going to slip stitch it to join. And this is a place where you could either continue and make one more tile up here, and that would continue growing your crocheting this way. So that would make a rectangle. And then each row would just continue with four tiles, because you would be decreasing over here, but increasing over here, and it would work this way. We're going to work a square so that we can practice decreasing. So I'm going to stop here. So you see I'm creating the top edge of the square here, and I'm creating the side edge here with our first decrease over here. So the way that I know I have the right number of tiles, in case I'm confused, is that I have one fewer than the previous row. So this was four, and now I have three. So from here, I'm going to chain one and turn my work, and we're going to do the exact same thing that we did in this row. So I'm skipping this first chain and the slip stitch, and then I'm going to slip stitch into each of these double crochets, including the turning chain. So that's four slip stitches, and we're right back where we started the previous row. So we're going to chain three, and then I'm going to double crochet three in this turning chain, and I'm going to repeat that one more time to create a second tile. Okay, and we're up here. Again, I've reached my top edge here. So I had three tiles in the previous row. Now I've created two. So I'm going to slip stitch and join this here, and I'm going to chain one and then work that decrease right here. So that's skipping the chain and the slip stitch, and then I'm going to slip stitch four, and then I'm going to create one last tile in the corner. So I've got my last tile there. I'm just going to slip stitch to join it, and what we've created here is a square that's four tiles by four tiles. So at the end, I like to just slip stitch along this edge just to keep everything even. So I'm going to turn it, chain one, and then I slip stitch in these four double crochets, and then from here, I could cut my yarn and pull it through this loop so that I have a fastened-off square. Stay tuned for the rest of the videos in this series where I'm going to talk about how to change colors in the middle of a row for corner-to-corner crochet, as well as how to read a graph and create a project from a graph specifically. Please check out makeanddecree.com for all my free corner-to-corner patterns as well as additional video tutorials. Thanks so much for watching and happy crocheting!