Crochet Over Cord.

Use a short, clean length of soft craft cord and a smooth, contrasting yarn. Start with cord clearly thicker than the yarn, but supple enough to form a broad U without forcing it. A stiff, tightly bent rope makes this first exercise unnecessarily difficult.

Choose a hook that draws the yarn through comfortably. The cord's thickness is not a recommendation for a hook of the same diameter: the hook handles the thinner yarn. Try the yarn's suggested size as a starting point and inspect the actual loops.

Have two markers or yarn scraps, scissors and a blunt yarn needle nearby. Leave generous uncovered cord at both ends of the study. Do not cut the core flush with the stitching while learning; an uncovered end is easier to inspect and adjust.

Different cords can fray, compress or react to washing differently. Check the materials before planning a finished object. A firm appearance alone does not establish load capacity, heat resistance or suitability for a floor mat.

Put a slip knot of the working yarn on the hook, leaving a tail for finishing. The knot is the starting working loop, not one of the twelve stitches. There is no foundation chain in this first wrapping section.

Lay the cord across your supporting hand with the working yarn behind it. Keep the starting yarn tail out of the hook's route. Pass the hook under the cord, catch the working yarn and bring a loop back under and up to the front. There are now two yarn loops on the hook.

Bring the working yarn over the cord and over the hook. Pull that yarn through both hook loops. One working loop remains, and the completed single crochet surrounds the cord. Its top forms the small V you will use later.

Keep the cord outside the hook loops throughout. If you have pulled a bight of cord through the yarn, undo that movement. The core should pass through the body of the wrapping stitch, not become one of its working loops.

Mark the top of this first completed single crochet. Gently settle it on the cord without tightening the starting knot so hard that the yarn is difficult to handle.

Repeat the same wrapping movement eleven more times. Each new stitch passes around the cord beside the previous stitch; it does not go into the previous stitch's top yet. There are twelve completed single crochets and one live loop on the hook.

Keep their top Vs facing the same way along one side of the cord. Mark the twelfth top as well as the first. Number them from the start to the current hook: one through twelve. These are completed stitch positions, not the separate strands visible across the core.

Let the wraps settle next to one another. If they are crowded into a short lump, slide them gently apart while the cord is straight. If there are wide bare gaps, bring them closer before deciding that the hook size is wrong.

Coverage depends on the yarn, cord and spacing together. A single layer of thin yarn may leave some core visible. Do not keep adding stitches into nonexistent foundation positions to conceal that fact: this first section is simply a counted set of twelve independent wraps.

Stop and check that you can still lift the twelfth top V with the hook. A stitch can look tidy while being too tight to work into. Loosen the loop height or choose a more comfortable hook before joining another section to it.

Make one chain with the working yarn and turn the work. This chain provides turning height and does not count as a single crochet. Keep the active loop secured on the hook while arranging the cord.

Bend the free cord beyond stitch twelve into a broad U, bringing a new uncovered length alongside the existing covered section. Do not pull the bend sharply against the last stitch. Leave room for the cord to turn naturally.

The new core length is the material you will now cover. The old top Vs are the attachment points that connect the new covered length to the first one. These two roles are different: passing around the new core without using an old V would make another unconnected wrapping section.

Start beside old stitch twelve. Keep its two top loops accessible below the new cord. Support both lengths so the free cord does not twist across the hook or cover the target stitch completely.

Keep the new core beside the old stitch tops, then make the first attachment:

1. Insert the hook under both top loops of old stitch twelve, below the new core.
2. Catch the working yarn from behind the new cord. Draw it through the old stitch and up around the core. Two yarn loops are now on the hook.
3. Yarn over above the core and pull through both loops. One loop remains.

That single crochet holds the new cord and joins it to old stitch twelve. Do not add a separate slip stitch or wrapping stitch at the same base.

Repeat into old stitches eleven, ten, nine, eight and seven, making one new single crochet around the new cord and into each old top V. Stop after those six attachment stitches. Mark the sixth new top before putting the sample down.

The exercise now contains eighteen completed single crochets in total: twelve original wraps and six new attachment stitches. Six old tops, positions twelve back to seven, have been used once each. Old positions one through six are deliberately unworked. The turning chain is outside the eighteen-stitch total.

Do not continue automatically into the remaining six positions. First lay the study down and check that the two covered lengths sit beside one another without a strand accidentally crossing their gap. Look underneath as well as at the top: the new stitches should capture the new core rather than stitch through its fibres.

If the bend pulls the two lengths into a tight crease, release some core through the turn and redistribute the nearby wraps. If the new section waves, check whether the free cord has been squeezed into too little space or the attachment loops are excessively long.

A full coil has a longer outer circumference than its inner attachment row. That can require increases or other spacing adjustments. The ordinary six-increases-per-round example from a yarn-only circle is not a universal rule for covered cord: core thickness and the width of the wrapping stitches affect the fit.

Use the flat-circle guide to understand the purpose of increases, then follow a cord-project pattern suited to the actual materials. A short joined bend does not establish the counts for a coaster, basket base or wall.

For this practice piece, fasten off the working yarn with a finishing tail. Weave that tail through the crochet stitches without drawing them tight enough to distort the core. Keep the cord ends generous until you choose a suitable finish for that particular cord; do not apply heat or adhesive on the assumption that all fibres behave alike.

Keep a note of the core, yarn, hook and how the bend behaved. That record is more useful for the next trial than calling the result simply loose or tight. For another way of adding structure without a separate core, continue with joining crochet squares.