How to Count Rows in Crochet

“Repeat row 2 until you have 40 rows.” Thirty-something rows in, the blanket covers your lap and the number has gone. A knitter can run a needle up a column of stitches and count one V per row. Crochet doesn’t line up that neatly: its rows are bands of stitches, and every second band shows you its back. This guide explains how to count rows in crochet by reading those bands, in rows and in rounds, and how to keep a running tally so that you seldom have to. It uses US terms throughout: a US single crochet is a UK double crochet, and a US double is a UK treble.

What a crochet row looks like

A crochet stitch is a small post with two loops lying across its top. A row is a line of those posts standing next to each other, and it’s as tall as its stitch: low for single crochet, taller for half double, and taller again for double and treble. The turning chain that starts a row tells you the height: 1 chain for single crochet, 2 for half double, 3 for double and 4 for treble.

Every stitch also has a front and a back, and the two don’t look alike. When you work in rows, you turn the piece at the end of each one, so the fabric shows the fronts of one row and then the backs of the next. That’s why two neighbouring rows of the same stitch look different, and it’s the key to telling them apart.

What isn’t a row

Three things get counted by mistake:

• The foundation chain. Row 1 is the first row of stitches worked into the chain, and the chain itself has no number. The exception is a chainless foundation, such as foundation single crochet, which makes the chain and the first row together: most patterns call that row 1.
• The loop on your hook. It will become the top of the stitch you haven’t made yet. It is never a stitch and never a row.
• A turning chain with nothing beside it. If you’ve chained and turned, and not yet worked the row, that row isn’t there to count.

How to count rows in crochet, stitch by stitch

Lay the piece flat, right side up if it has one, and count in the middle, away from the edges. Use the tip of your hook as a pointer, and work from the foundation chain upwards.

Single crochet

Seen from the front, a single crochet shows two strands that meet in a small V. Seen from the back, it shows a short horizontal bar with two legs under it, a little like the letter π. In rows, the two take turns: a line of Vs, a line of bars, a line of Vs. Each line is one row, so count them all, Vs and bars alike. A swatch with 9 lines of Vs and 8 lines of bars has 17 rows.

For a quick check, count only the lines of bars and double the number. That gets you within one row of the answer.

Half double crochet

Half double crochet reads the same way, in taller lines. The back of each stitch has an extra horizontal strand just under its top loops, often called the third loop, so the rows that show their backs carry a clear line of dashes. One plain line and one line of dashes are 2 rows.

Double crochet and taller stitches

Tall stitches are the easy ones. Each double crochet is a post you can pinch between two fingers, and each row is a line of posts with a seam of top loops above it. Count the lines of posts.

The side edge gives the same answer. Every row starts with a turning chain and ends with a stitch, and because you turn the work, each edge shows them by turns: a chain of 3, then a post, then a chain of 3 again. Each of them is one row.

Shells, clusters and other stitch patterns

In a stitch pattern, find what repeats. If it’s a 2-row repeat, such as a row of shells followed by a row of single crochet, count the shell rows and double. With 12 rows of shells, and the plain row above the last of them worked, that’s 24 rows. When nothing in the middle is easy to see, read the side edge as you would for double crochet.

Counting rounds in crochet

Worked in the round without turning, every round shows its front, so there’s only one kind of line to count.

Spirals and amigurumi

Most amigurumi is single crochet in a continuous spiral: no join, no turning chain, and nothing to show where a round ends. Put a locking stitch marker in the first stitch of the round, and move it up each time you get back to it. That’s the moment to count.

To count afterwards, start at the centre. The stitches worked into the magic ring are round 1, and each ring of Vs outside them is one more round. The stitch count helps too. A flat circle that starts with 6 stitches and gains 6 in every round has 36 stitches when round 6 is done, so the stitches of one round tell you which round it is.

A scrap of contrasting yarn can keep the tally for you. Lay it over the top of your work between the last stitch of one round and the first stitch of the next. Each time you come round to it, flip its long end over to the other side of the work before you make the first stitch. The scrap weaves up through the fabric as a line of dashes, and each dash, whichever side it’s on, is one round. With 7 dashes showing on the outside and 7 on the inside, that’s 14 rounds.

Joined rounds

In joined rounds, each round is closed with a slip stitch and the next one begins with a chain. Those joins stack up into a faint seam. Follow the seam outwards from the centre, and count one round for each step.

Granny squares

A classic granny square is made of clusters of 3 double crochet, and each side gains one cluster in every round. So count the clusters along one side, from corner to corner, with one cluster of each corner belonging to that side. A square with 7 clusters along a side has 7 rounds, and 28 clusters in its last round. If you’d rather count from the middle, go out along a diagonal, where every round has one corner.

Counting the stitches in a row

Rows go wrong less often than stitches do. If the edges of your work are wandering in or out, count the stitches before you count anything else.

Look down on the top edge: each stitch is topped by a V, like a link in a chain. Count the Vs, and leave out the loop on your hook. The turning chain is the question. In single crochet it usually isn’t counted as a stitch, and you work into the very first stitch of the row. In double crochet the 3 chains usually stand for the first stitch, so you skip the stitch at their foot and, at the far end, work the last stitch into the top of the previous row’s chain. Miss that one, and a row of 20 becomes a row of 19. Your pattern says which way it counts, often with a stitch count at the end of each row.

Keeping a running count as you crochet

Reading rows is the check. A running count is what saves you from needing it.

• Count at the turn. Chain, turn, count: tie the tally to the turning chain, and it happens at the same point in every row.
• Park the loop. Crochet has one live loop, so putting the work down to make a tally mark is safe. Pull the loop up long, or clip a locking marker through it, and it can’t unravel.
• Mark every 10th row. Clip a locking marker into the first stitch of rows 10, 20 and 30. A recount then starts at the nearest marker, and never has to cover more than 9 rows.
• Use any counter you like. Paper, a clicker and an app all work for crochet as they do for knitting, and Clicker, Paper or App? weighs them up.

Rowpip, the counter we make, was designed for knitters, but a row is a row: you tap anywhere on the counter when you finish one. Tell it your project is in the round, and the label over the number reads “Round”. The page on a crochet row counter has more.

Measuring instead of counting

A gauge swatch tells you how many rows make 10 cm. At 16 rows of single crochet to 10 cm (4 in), “work until the piece measures 25 cm” comes to 40 rows. For a scarf, the tape measure is enough. For two sleeves, or for blanket squares that have to match, count the rows: crochet stretches less than knitting does, but two pieces measured to the same length can still be a row apart.

When you’ve lost count

1. Finish the row, and park the loop.
2. Find the closest thing you’re sure of: a marker, a colour change, the first row of a new stitch pattern or the foundation chain.
3. Count the lines from there to the top, once in the middle of the piece and once along a side edge. If the two counts agree, believe them.
4. Write the number down, clip a marker into the top row, and carry on.

Knitters have the same habits, with Vs and ridges in place of posts and bars. They’re in the guide to how to count rows in knitting.