How to Treble Crochet (Triple Crochet) for Beginners

Start with a foundation chain. For practice, chain about 15 so you have room to work a full row. When the chain is ready, wrap the yarn over your hook twice before you go anywhere. Count the wraps out loud, one and two, so they become a habit. Those two wraps are what make this stitch a treble instead of a double.

Keep the wraps loose and sitting side by side on the shaft of the hook. If they are jammed up against the throat of the hook, they will fight you on the first pull-through.

Count to the fifth chain from your hook and push the hook into it. Yarn over and pull a loop back through just that chain. Stop and look at your hook. You should have four loops sitting on it: the original working loop, your two starting wraps, and the new loop you just pulled up.

Those four skipped chains you left below the hook are not wasted. They stand in as the first treble of the row, which is why the first real stitch starts in the fifth chain.

Yarn over once. Now pull that yarn through only the first two loops on your hook. Not all four, just the first two closest to the tip. You will drop from four loops down to three.

This is the same two-at-a-time motion you use in a double crochet. The difference is that a treble has an extra round of it coming up, because you started taller.

Yarn over again. Pull through the next two loops on the hook. You will go from three loops down to two. The stitch is starting to lean and stretch into that tall treble shape as the loops come off.

Keep an even tension on the working yarn with your other hand. If you yank, the stitch gets tight and short. If it is too loose, the gaps look sloppy. Aim for relaxed and consistent.

One more yarn over. Pull through the last two loops on your hook. You are left with a single loop, and that completes your first treble crochet. Tall, right? Set it next to a single crochet and it stands about twice the height.

To make the next stitch, yarn over twice again, go into the next chain, and run the same four pull-throughs. Repeat all the way across to finish the row.

Carry on across the chain, one treble in each, until you reach the end of the row. To start the next row, chain four and turn your work. That chain-four stands up to the height of a treble, so it counts as your first stitch of the new row.

Because the turning chain is your first stitch, do not work a treble into the very first stitch at the base of it. Skip that one and put your first real treble into the second stitch. That keeps your stitch count steady from row to row.

Here is the habit that keeps your edges clean. At the end of every row, your last treble goes into the top of the turning chain from the row below, not into the last regular stitch. That turning chain counts as a stitch, so if you skip it your work narrows by one stitch on every row.

When you are done, you will have a neat panel of tall, even trebles with the airy texture this stitch is known for. From here you can fasten off and weave in your ends, then put the stitch to work in a scarf, a shawl, or any pattern that calls for tr.