What does ‘multiples of 3 plus 1' mean?

Brush up on your technique with our simple guide…

- Becky Skuse

It’s amazing that with just a handful of crochet stitches, you can create loads of different fabric, texture and shape effects by combining the stitches in all sorts of different ways.

To make a project repeatable for other crocheters, though, each combination of stitches needs a recipe or a ‘stitch pattern’. The simplest stitch pattern we learn as beginners is a double crochet stitch pattern, where you dc into each dc on the row below.

Some stitch patterns can be more complicated. Instructions may start by asking you crochet a chain in multiples of stitches – for example: ‘multiples of 3 plus 1’. This might sound complicated, but it’s easier than it sounds! With a bit of simple maths (and/or a calculator), you can easily adjust the length of chain to suit the size you want for your fabric. I’ll explain everything you need to know, and reveal some simple tricks for working with stitch patterns. Let’s hook!

What’s a stitch pattern?

Start by learning how stitch patterns work…

As highlighted above, stitch patterns explain which crochet stitches to work and where, so you can recreate a specific fabric effect. To save space, stitch patterns are usually divided into ‘repeats’ – a set of stitches that are repeated across the same row, and then a set of rows that are repeated, all of which work together to create the decorative effect or shape. I like to imagine a stitch pattern as a ‘tile’ – if you repeat those ‘tiles’ then they fit together to create a larger fabric.