How to Crochet the Front and Back Post Stitch

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This tutorial will teach you how to crochet the front post stitch as well as the back post stitch. They are abbreviated as FP and BP, respectively. You will learn how to crochet these stitches using the double crochet in this Photo and Video Tutorial.

In case you never crocheted the double crochet before, be sure to learn how to, so this tutorial will be more understandable for you. You will find these tutorials very helpful if you are just starting out to learn how to crochet.

This is very detailed and made for a beginner and therefore very easily understandable. Ideally, you would watch the video tutorial first (below) and then reference the picture tutorial to solidify your new gained knowledge. Be sure to practice this stitch a lot as most patterns use this stitch.

The Front and Back Post Stitch Tutorial is part of a “How to Crochet Beginner Guide Series”. You can find all of the Basic Crochet Stitches in my Basic Crochet 101 page.

How to Crochet a Front Post Stitch using the Double Crochet

A full video tutorial can be found below as well, in case the picture tutorial is not as clear for you.

This tutorial uses the double crochet to demonstrate the front and back post stitch. These stitches can also be used with any other basic crochet stitch also.

1. First, start with a row of double crochets. Then chain 2 and turn.

2. For a double crochet, yarn over once. Now, insert your hook from the back around to the front of the dc from the previous row (exiting next to the post of the dc). A dc is considered a post here and as you are pushing the post to the front it is considered a front post.

3. Yarn over as you normally would for a double crochet.

4. And pull the just yarned over yarn through 2 loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull the yarn through the last 2 loops. You now made your first front post double crochet.

5. Now repeat steps 2 to 4 for more front post double crochets. The idea is that you do not insert the hook thru the front and back loop, but rather go around the stitch from the previous row. Which means you can do that for many other basic crochet stitches as well.

6. Here you can see how the front post double crochet looks like from the back. In fact, from the back a front post stitch looks like a back post stitch.

How to Crochet a Back Post Stitch using the Double Crochet

1. In order to crochet a back post double crochet, yarn over and insert the hook from the back in front of the double crochet you are working on (the dc is the post).

2. Now, push the hook around the dc (the post) back to the back (which is why it is called a back post).

3. Now yarn over as you normally would for a double crochet.

4. And finish up the stitch like a normal double crochet. You now created one back post double crochet stitch where both the first row dc and the 2nd row dc are push towards the back.

5. Below you can see I created a total of 4 back post double crochets.

Visual Difference between Front and Back Post Stitches

1. A front post stitch gets the posts (whatever the basic stitch is that you are using) push towards the front. And a back post stitch is pushed towards the back. in the picture below, you see 4 back post stitches on the left and 4 front post stitches on the right (using double crochets).

2. The picture below demonstrates how the front post stitches get pushed to the front (bottom part) and the back post stitches get pushed to the back (top part) making the stitches more three dimensional and providing the project more texture.