Single crochet, the stitch at the heart of the logo

Take a good look at the SIVICA logo: the V in the middle of the name is made of two loops, one terracotta and one brown, which together also draw a heart. It's a crochet stitch, the single crochet, drawn with two loops: one per strand, just like when you work with two strands together.

What single crochet is

It's the simplest crochet stitch and one of the most used. In Italian it's called punto basso or maglia bassa, often written pb in patterns. In English it has two names: single crochet (sc) in American patterns and double crochet (dc) in British ones. If you follow an English-language pattern, check where it comes from, because the American double crochet is a different, taller stitch.

How to work it

You start from a foundation chain, or from the previous row of stitches.

1. Insert the hook into the stitch below.
2. Catch the yarn and pull it through: now there are two loops on the hook.
3. Catch the yarn again and pull it through both loops.

That's it: one single crochet. Then you start again, in the next stitch. At the top of every stitch there are two loops, one at the front and one at the back, which seen from above form a little V: that's where the hook goes in on the next row.

Why it suits t-shirt yarn

Single crochet is short and tight: it makes a dense, compact fabric, almost like cloth. With a thick yarn like t-shirt yarn, that's exactly what a bag needs: it holds its shape and leaves no holes for things to slip through. That's why t-shirt yarn bags worked in single crochet are the most common kind.

The heart of the logo

In the logo the single crochet has two loops in two colours, because it stands for the two strands worked together, and it takes the place of the V in SIVICA. The same stitch, repeated many times, draws the bags you see on the colours page when you try them in your favourite colours.

If you'd like to know who's behind it all, I've told my story on the about me page.