Crochet braids

by Jenness Fulton January 15, 2021

I’ve long been fascinated by crochet cables, stemming from seeing the many knitted versions, especially on the cute little hooded cardigan my best friend knitted for my youngest that featured a lovely braided section that framed the button band and the edge of the hood. I tried to replicate something similar in crochet a few years ago when her youngest was born but I don’t think my early version did justice to her lovely work and I’m not even sure if I got the sizing quite right.

Anyway, I thought that I would try to properly figure out how to do a crochet braid (or 3). I’ve seen various braids with 3, 6 and 9 strands so I thought I’d see if I could work out how to do this myself. To figure it out I started with coloured pencils and paper and worked out a basic 3 stranded braid. It wasn’t as tricky as I thought it would be once I had started charting out what to do. I decided to make the braid with 3 different colours just so I could see a little more clearly what I was doing, although that in itself creates its own problems with lots of tangled skeins (especially since I used a different colour again on each side of the braid to distinguish it from the rest of my row). I then decided to add in more strands and used 6 strands (2 of each colour) and then 9 strands (3 of each colour) and was quite pleased with my results – although only from the front as it doesn’t look quite as nice from the back especially with all my loose yarn threads hanging down.

I have written out instructions for what I did as if I was working in a single colour as that simplifies things for the repeat. If you are changing colours all the time the instructions become convoluted and it takes longer to get back to the start of your repeat. Please note that you can do Rows 2 and 3 of each of these braids in the opposite order (ie you can begin with Row 1 and then do repeats of Row 3 followed by Row 2 ie starting with back post stitches for your braid instead of front post stitches). I chose to make the first and third braids by beginning with back post stitches (rows with front post stitches are on the right side of your work and back post stitch rows are on the wrong side of your work for these braids). I have written out my instructions as though I used front post stitches in my second row (and every subsequent even numbered row following) even though, as you will see from the photos, I didn’t do exactly that. Because I was using so many colours, I decided that, after making my first braid, I would simply chain the required number of starting chains for the next sample and then started again as you will see from the final photo.

Basic 3 stranded braid (plait)

Note: as mentioned in the introduction, Rows 2 and 3 (and the repeats of these two rows) have been reversed in the actual sample that I made. It does not change how it works, just which side is the right side of your work (the right side being the side with the front post stitches on).

With your chosen colour, chain 10

Row 1 Hdc in the 2nd ch from hook and each ch across, ch 1 and turn. (9 hdc)

Row 2 Hdc in the first 3 sts, sk 1, FPdc around the post of the next st, working in front of stitch just made, FPdc around the sk st, FPdc around the next st, hdc in the last 3 sts, ch 1 and turn. (3 FPdc, 6 hdc)

The photo below left shows the wrong side of the work (how it looks after making the stitches in that row) and the photo below right shows the right side of the work.

Row 3 Hdc in the first 3 sts, sk 1, BPdc around the post of the next st, working behind st just made, BPdc around the sk st, BPdc around the next st, hdc in the last 3 sts, ch 1 and turn. (3 BPdc, 6 hdc)

Repeat Rows 2 and 3 until you are happy with the length of your braid. The photo below shows what it looked like after 8 rows.

6 stranded braid (plait)

With your chosen colour, ch 13

Row 1 Hdc in the 2nd ch from hook and each ch across, ch 1 and turn. (12 hdc)

Row 2 Hdc in the first 3 sts, sk 2, FPdc around the next 2 sts, working in front of the sts just made, FPdc around the 2 sk sts, FPdc around the next 2 sts, hdc in the last 3 sts, ch 1 and turn. (6 FPdc, 6 hdc).

Row 3 Hdc in the first 3 sts, sk 2, BPdc around the next 2 sts, working behind the sts just made, BPdc around the 2 sk sts, BPdc around the next 2 sts, hdc in the last 3 sts, ch 1 and turn. (6 BPdc, 6 hdc).

The photo below left shows the wrong side of the work (how it looks after making the stitches in that row) and the photo below right shows the right side of the work.

Repeat Rows 2 and 3 until you are happy with the length of your braid.

The photo below shows the braid after 7 rows.

9 stranded braid (plait)

For the 9 stranded braid I decided to use FPtr and BPtr instead of FPdc and BPdc simply because I felt like the stitches had to go further. However, I’m not sure if that was needed or not. I will have to play around with things to see if I can use FP/BPdc stitches.

With your chosen colour, ch 16

Row 1 Hdc in the 2nd ch from hook and each ch across, ch 1 and turn. (15 hdc)

Row 2 Hdc in the first 3 sts, sk 2, FPtr around the next 3 sts, working in front of the sts just made, FPtr around the 3 sk sts, FPtr around the next 3 sts, hdc in the last 3 sts, ch 1 and turn. (9 FPtr, 6 hdc).

The photo below left shows the wrong side of the work (how it looks after making the stitches in that row) and the photo below right shows the right side of the work.

Row 3 Hdc in the first 3 sts, sk 2, BPtr around the next 3 sts, working behind the sts just made, BPtr around the 3 sk sts, BPtr around the next 3 sts, hdc in the last 3 sts, ch 1 and turn. (9 BPdc, 6 hdc).

Repeat Rows 2 and 3 until you are happy with the length of your braid.

The photo below shows a comparison of all 3 samples that I created.

I quite like how these all turned out. I’m thinking I might have to try to come up with some more complicated looking cables at some stage but for now I’m happy with what I’ve done.