We’ve all heard or read the crochet instruction yarn over. Many of us crocheter who do amigurumi have also heard of yarn under.. But whats the difference betwixt the two? Which is better, for what application? That’s what I’m going to find out. I’m doing a deep dive on what the same swatches will look like only changing whether I yarn over or yarn under. So, if you’ve ever said, Single crochet yarn over Vs. yarn under, what is the difference? Then you’ve come to the right place.
Yarn over
For just about every tutorial I’ve ever followed, I’ve heard/read yarn over. This means that you put your working yarn over the hook so that you can go to the next step.
Put your hook into the st, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through both loops on your hook.
Yarn under
For a yarn under there is a very small difference. Instead of wrapping the working yarn around the hook, you hold the yarn low and hook the yarn like a claw. Or wrap the yarn under the hook if you like the hand holding the yarn to be active in your crochet. I’ll be doing the same swatches just using this yarn under method.
This swatch is made with a G+ hook. It is 10 stitches across and 3 rows high.
The main difference between the regular single crochet (yarn over) and this yarn under single crochet is that you will be grabbing the yarn with the hook facing downward on the pull up and the yarn will be brought in front of the hook instead of around the hook.
The swatches side by side
Here I’ll be showing the swatches side by side. This will make it a bit easier to see the difference between them.
The one on the left is the yarn under single crochet stitches. The one on the right is the regular yarn over swatch. Everything else is the same about these swatches. I used the same yarn, same hook, same number of stitches and rows.
What’s the verdict?
You can clearly tell that the yarn under single crochet swatch is small. It makes for a much tighter tension just because of how you pull the yarn forward. I found that my gauge was much tighter using the yarn under method.
I can see why this is a favorite method for amigurumi artists and designers. You would have less gaps in your work without thinking about it. I did find it hard to remember to yarn under at first but I started to get the hang on it pretty quickly.
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