Double Decrease Crochet Stitch

When making double crochet stitches, the stitch used to decrease the total number of stitches in the row is the half double crochet stitch. This stitch is sometimes called double decrease crochet.

To make a double decrease crochet stitch:

1. Yarn over as a crocheter typically would when making a double crochet stitch.
2. Insert the hook into the next stitch, yarn over and pull the yarn back through the stitch as usual.
3. There are now three loops on the crochet hook.
4. Yarn over and pull the yarn through two loops on the crochet hook as normally done to make a double crochet stitch.
5. This is where you stop in a half double crochet stitch. It is called a half double crochet because the final step to complete the double crochet stitch is not finished.

Repeat steps 1 through 4 above one more time than the desired number of decrease stitches in the row. For example, to decrease by 3 double crochet stitches, make 4 half double crochet stitches. When all the half double crochets have been made, yarn over and pull the yarn through all the loops remaining on the crochet hook.  The result is that the number of completed double crochet stitches is reduced to only one.

Using the Double Decrease Crochet Stitch

If you had a row of twenty double crochet stitches and you wished to reduce it to 14 double crochet stitches, you would decrease the number of stitches in the row by 6. A common way to do this is to decrease the number of double crochets by 3 a the beginning of the row and decrease again by 3 at the end of the row. To do this you would begin the row with 4 half double crochets. Yarn over and pull through all the loops on the hook resulting in only one stitch. Repeat this making 4 half double crochet stitches in the last 4 stitches of the row. Yarn over and pull through all the loops left on the crochet hook again. The row has now decreased by 6 double crochet stitches.