The corner-to-corner crochet or C2C is something I had never heard of before I joined some Facebook groups. I was immediately fascinated with it. The idea of crocheting a blanket from corner to corner instead of endless rows seemed fun to me. It was also intimidating to me, I will admit, but I finally gave it a try.
What is C2C Crochet?
What does c2c crochet mean? Well, C2C is an abbreviation for “corner to corner”. Instead of crocheting in rows or rounds, you start at one corner and work your way to another. Due to this, C2C projects will be square or rectangular. It is said that corner to corner works up faster than doing regular rows and rounds, but I do not know if that is a fact or merely how it seems when you crochet corner to corner. Try it out and see what conclusion you come to!
Is C2C difficult?
Generally speaking, corner to corner crochet is not difficult since it is made up of double crochet. (The standard version is, at least) The tricky part comes in on the placement of the double crochets. Your starting point is a corner, then you add a couple of blocks of dc forming a triangle. The triangle continues until you get to your halfway point, then you “decrease” it back down to the other corner.
Due to the way you are creating the pattern, each block of double crochets turn different directions. For me, it was a little tricky trying to figure out how to get the double crochets in the correct space. As you can see from the images below though, I did manage to figure it out.
What can I make with C2C?
As far as I know, you can only do square or rectangle on C2C, so that will limit the projects you can make. Of course, you can still do blankets and washcloths, though. The other interesting part of C2C is that you can do “graphghans”.
C2C and Graphs
The c2c crochet stitch is a great stitch for following a graph instead of a written pattern. Did you know you could crochet from a graph? I didn’t until I started learning filet crochet and I can’t wait to talk to you about that! Following a graph or chart and crocheting a picture with c2c is called c2c graphgan.
I went to sarahmaker.com to learn the C2C stitch. She has a great photo tutorial. I will admit I got really confused around row 3 and had to put it down. I almost moved my plan of C2C to another week because of this, but I decided to persist. After looking at my work and the photo tutorial some more, it clicked. But, I will also admit that I got a little confused when the decrease started as well. Again, I persisted and figured out that I had simply gone too far before the decrease. (I felt I had mastered it and was no longer following the instructions…. So typical of me!)
How to C2C crochet for beginners
The C2C is created by crocheting “blocks” of stitches. You can use whatever stitch you want, but the standard is the double crochet. Each block is a chain 3, and 3 double crochets, so technically 4 dc. Each block is worked into the chain 3 of the previous row. So once you understand that, the stitch starts to click. (Hence why I thought I had mastered it before the decrease).
Each new “row” is created by chaining 6 and then dc’ing in the 4th chain from the hook and dc in last 2 stitches. This creates a block that stands out from your work and then you slip stitch it to the chain 3 from the previous row to put it in the place it should go.
As I mentioned above, C2C is a popular stitch to use with a graph. The photo tutorial has a small graph with each photo to show you the blocks you are creating. This was very helpful for figuring out where the next “block” of stitches should go with your slip stitch.
If you have never created a section of stitches that sticks out from your work and then slip stitch it back in place, this may be a little tricky for you. Luckily for me, I learned to do this several months ago when I was playing around with making cat coasters and gingerbread men. The ears on the cat coasters are created this way as well as the arms and legs on the gingerbread man. I will be talking about both of these in upcoming projects of the month.
C2C Crochet Decrease
The C2C decrease is not a typical crochet decrease. In this case you are decreasing your triangle shape down to the square shape. The decrease here is all about the placement of the next cluster of stitches instead of lessening the number of stitches in a row. (That is however the end result technically.)
When the decrease starts, you are no longer adding the stitches to the outside edge of your triangle. Now you have to start filling in the gaps without adding to the edge. It is hard to put it into words, but once you do it, it will make a little more sense.
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C2C Crochet Free Patterns
While there are some c2c free patterns out there, I want to point out something else. Since c2c can be done using a graph, you can CREATE YOUR OWN C2C CROCHET FREE PATTERNS! Get some graph paper, come up with the design you are looking for, and fill in the boxes on your graph paper that create that design. Now, you just need to crochet it! It really is that simple!
So, without further ado, here is the link for the photo tutorial I used.
Free Printable Row Tracker
