Embroidery on Crochet.

Choose smooth background yarn and a suitable hook. Chain nineteen, then single crochet into the second chain from the hook and each remaining chain: eighteen stitches.

For rows two to twenty, chain one, turn and make one single crochet in every stitch. Chain one does not count as a stitch in this exercise. Keep eighteen actual tops across each row. Fasten off and secure the crochet tails.

Follow the yarn's care instructions if preparing or washing the background before stitching. Let it dry fully in its natural shape. The gauge guide explains why measurements should describe fabric in the condition you will use.

Choose a display face and mark its margin. Leave the reverse accessible throughout the exercises. Do not embroider a closed object where you cannot check whether the needle has caught another layer.

A blunt tapestry needle can pass through existing spaces without deliberately piercing the background yarn. Its eye still needs to carry the chosen decoration thread without forcing a large hole. Try a few passes near the margin before committing to an area.

A finer, more pointed needle may suit placements that must pierce between smaller strands, but it changes how you enter the background. Keep the point away from your supporting fingers and check that it is not cutting or repeatedly splitting the crochet yarn.

For these exercises, begin with a smooth contrasting thread that can pass comfortably through the fabric. A thick strand may cover more ground but also adds bulk; very fine thread may sink between open crochet stitches. Needle size, thread thickness and the background's spacing need to work together.

Do not stretch the patch into a tight hoop to make its openings look regular. Support it flat or gently in your hand. If a hoop is used later, assess the decoration again after releasing the background to its normal dimensions.

Start with backstitch for a line or cross stitch for small X shapes. Try the looped stitches next, then knots and filling when you are comfortable controlling the thread. You do not need to finish all six exercises in one sitting.

Leave plain fabric between practice areas. Two columns of three areas can fit the exercises, but move them to suit the supported openings you find.

Keep each exercise short: four backstitches, three crosses, four chain links, three French knots, six trial satin stitches and four blanket-stitch legs. These are decoration counts, not changes to the eighteen crochet stitches across the background.

Crochet stitches and rows do not necessarily make a square grid. A design drawn on square graph paper can change shape on the fabric. Sew one trial cross and check its proportions before planning a larger motif.

Choose anchor openings that the needle can find again. If a design requires a point between the background's obvious holes, decide how to support that point before sewing. Pulling neighbouring stitches apart does not create a stable extra grid position.

Thread a manageable length of decoration yarn or thread. Leave a tail on the reverse long enough to thread onto the needle and secure later. Hold that tail while making two small anchoring stitches in nearby substantial background fabric, without gathering it.

Those anchors are separate from the practice counts below. Check that they hold before releasing the tail. At the end of each exercise, weave the decoration tail beneath several suitable reverse-side stitches, change direction and inspect the front again. Choose a path that does not show through an open area or pull the patch inward.

Secure the starting tail too. Do not trim either end immediately beside one loose pass. Finish and restart for the next practice area, so there is no long thread bridge crossing the back between unrelated exercises.

Backstitch makes a continuous line of short stitches. Practise four stitches, keeping the thread relaxed so the crochet stays flat.

1. Choose the start of a short line. Bring the needle up one stitch-length ahead of it, then take it down at the start. This makes the first stitch backwards along the line.
2. Bring the needle up one stitch-length beyond the far end of that stitch. Take it down where the previous stitch ended.
3. Repeat that forward-on-the-back, backward-on-the-front movement twice more. You should have four touching segments on the front.

If the line has gaps, check that each new stitch meets the end of the previous one. If it puckers, loosen the latest stitch. Adjust the spacing to use supported crochet openings rather than forcing a perfectly straight line through a large gap.

For one cross, identify four corners around a small supported area: lower left, upper right, upper left and lower right as you view the display face.

Come up at lower left and go down at upper right to make the first diagonal. Come up at upper left and go down at lower right for the crossing diagonal. Two diagonal stitches complete one X.

Repeat in two neighbouring areas. Keep all three upper diagonals leaning the same way. Each X has two diagonals. The embroidery does not change the crochet stitch count.

Check the proportions on the actual patch. A cross spanning one stitch interval and one row interval may be rectangular. Use wider or taller spacing deliberately if the design needs it, while keeping each corner anchored in suitable fabric.

Needle chain embroidery makes linked loops on the surface. Each new loop holds the previous one in place.

1. Bring the needle up at the start of a short line. Take it down through the same opening without piercing the emerging thread. Leave a loose loop on the surface.
2. Bring the needle up a short distance ahead, inside that loop. Draw the thread gently until the loop rests around it. That is the first link.
3. Take the needle down where it just emerged, inside the end of the link. Leave another loose loop, then come up farther along the line inside it.
4. Repeat until you have four links. Secure the last loop with a small stitch just beyond its end. This holding stitch is not a fifth link.

The links should sit on the fabric without pulling it together. If a loop disappears through the background, undo that movement and control the thread more gently.

This uses a needle on existing fabric. The crochet-chain lesson makes chains with a hook instead.

Choose three separated points where the background is substantial enough to support a knot. Bring the needle up at the first point. Hold the working thread under gentle control and wrap it once around the needle's shaft.

Insert the tip very close to the exit point, with a little background yarn between the exit and return positions. Slide the wrap towards the fabric and draw the needle through while controlling the thread. Let the knot sit on the surface without tightening the background around it.

Repeat at the other two points, securing the reverse locally as needed. In this exercise each knot uses one wrap. Extra wraps or a thicker thread change the result; they are not a reliable repair for a knot disappearing into a large hole.

If the needle's eye catches in the wrap, check the needle/thread pairing rather than forcing it through. If the knot pulls through the fabric, choose a better-supported point before repeating it.

Choose a small narrow area with two opposing boundaries. Bring the needle up on one boundary and down on the other. Bring it up again beside the first starting point, then take it down beside the first ending point.

Continue until you have six parallel surface stitches, all travelling across the area in the same direction. The reverse also carries thread across the area. Keep the passes short enough to rest on the background rather than making loose unsupported spans.

Six is a trial count, not a promise to fill a particular width. If background shows between the stitches, assess the spacing and thread thickness. Crowding several passes into one weak hole can distort the patch instead of giving smoother coverage.

Let the fabric relax after each few passes. A filled area that looks tidy while stretched may become loose or gathered when released. Inspect its reverse before securing the tail.

For this exercise, draw two imaginary parallel lines across a plain area: a lower line and an upper line. Work from left to right. Keep the two lines close enough for short stitch legs.

Bring the needle up at the start of the lower line. Take it down at a point on the upper line a little to the right, leaving a loose surface loop. Bring it up on the lower line directly below that upper point, inside the loose loop. Draw the thread through gently.

The result has a leg between the upper and lower lines and a linking bar along the lower line. Move to the next upper point to the right and repeat, again emerging directly beneath it inside the working loop.

Make four legs, then secure the final loop with a small holding stitch beyond it. Keep the bars along the same lower line. If a bar jumps to the upper side, check whether the needle emerged outside the working loop.

This is a sewn line within the fabric, not a crocheted blanket-stitch pattern or a complete edge treatment. Sewing around a free edge needs its own starting, corner and finishing decisions.

Lay the patch down without stretching it. Look for gathered areas, sinking crosses, loose chain links, unsupported knots and long reverse-side floats. Secure any unfinished tails before handling the sample further.

Use the plain margins to check the background: it should still have eighteen stitches across and twenty crochet rows.

Follow the blocking and care lesson with the care requirements of both yarns or threads. Check colour transfer and dimensional changes on an actual sample before decorating a full piece. A neat surface alone does not establish how it will behave when washed or worn.