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Basic Irish Crochet Lace Stitches

Crochet Ciúin

Good morning! It's Friday 2nd of August and I've been studying Irish Crochet for 2.5 weeks now but it feels like I've been doing it for months, in the best possible way. It feels like time has slowed down and sped up at the same time.. Anyway I'm finally luring myself away from the thread and hook for a little while to catch up here on the blog about what I have been doing and learning....


Learning the basic Irish Crochet Lace Stitches


I wasn't sure where to begin with studying Irish Crochet but I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that a lot of the basic stitches are actually the same as regular crochet stitches - it's just a matter of learning to work with much smaller threads and hooks.


I began on page 4 of the Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No1 (1912) and the nine basic stitches. I've included a quick introduction to these stitches below but I will go into further detail in another post which will feature pictures and videos. Please note that I use UK terms - but I will put the US term beside them where possible.


six irish crochet stitch samples; chain stitch, double crochet, treble crochet, half treble crochet, double treble crochet and long treble crochet stitch samples

Chain Stitch (ch)


The foundation of all crochet work and the aim is to make your chains as evenly as possible.

chain stitch sample


Double Crochet (dc) (US single crochet)


Put your hook through the work, thread over, draw through, there are now two loops on your hook. Thread over you hook and draw it through both stitches.

double crochet stitch sample


Treble Crochet (tc) (US double crochet)


Thread over hook, put hook through work, thread over and draw through work. Now there are three loops on your hook, thread over and draw through two hoops, thread over again and draw through the last two hoops.


treble crochet stitch sample


Half Treble Crochet (htc) (US half double crochet)


Thread over hook, put hook through work, thread over and draw through work. Now there are three loops on your hook, thread over and draw under all three loops. According to the book, this stitch is not used very much in lacemaking.

half treble crochet stitch sample


Double Treble Crochet (dtc) (US treble)


Thread over hook twice, put hook through work, thread over and draw through work. You now have four loops on your hook. Thread over and draw through two loops, thread over again and draw through next two loops, thread over for a last time and draw through final two loops.


double treble crochet stitch sample

Long treble Crochet (ltc) (US Double Treble..?)


Thread over hook three times, put hook through work, thread over and draw through work. You now have five loops on your hook. Thread over and draw through two loops, thread over again and draw through next two loops, thread over again and draw through two loops, thread over for a last time and draw through final two loops.


long treble crochet stitch sample

Then followed some stitches that I hadn't done before, enter The Roll Stitch (nowadays known as the Bullion), The Picot and The Clones Knot. Again I will post tutorials on these soon and will link here as soon as they are up!


The Roll Stitch / Bullion


A creator on YouTube suggested the genius idea of attaching a needle to the hook, so as you can see in the photo below I have a sewing needle masking taped to my hook with the eye of the needle beside the head of the hook. This might look a little odd but it is incredibly helpful when you are practicing, it helps lead the thread through the thread coil. This stitch took me a while to learn so be patient with yourself when practicing! This needle/hook arrangement is also helpful when learning The Clones Knot (below)..


sample of a roll stitch, also known as bullion stitch

The Picot


I love this stitch and from what I have seen so far in Irish Crochet, it is used a great deal. It's easy to do but gives a really charming effect. Here are some samples I made:


sample of a picot stitch on a chain, a picot stitch on a double crochet, and picot loops on a double crochet ring

sample of a picot stitch on a chain, a picot stitch on a double crochet, and picot loops on a double crochet ring

The Clones Knot


This stitch definitely deserves it's own post and at the time of writing I still haven't mastered this stitch but it's a lot better than when I first tried it! There really is no faking it with this stitch, it just requires patience and practice, practice, practice...



clones knot stitch on a chain sample
five clones knot stitches on a chain sample


And that's it! These were the nine stitches of Irish Crochet that I first learned. Looking back now I'm glad that I learned to crochet the normal way with DK wool first. Learning to crochet with a regular hook and yarn gave me the space and time to learn how to hold my hook/yarn and understand the basics before I moved onto this.


Thank you for reading, I hope it was helpful and keep an eye out for tutorials of these stitches here soon..



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