How to Do the Camel Stitch

Updated on 04/06/20

How to Do Camel Stitch in Crochet — The Spruce Crafts / Mollie Johanson

Project Overview

Skill Level: Intermediate

Knitting and crochet each have very distinct looks to them, but with camel stitch, your crochet can look a lot like knitting! This stitch works best in the round and is a variation on half double crochet. The only difference is where you insert your hook to start the stitch!

Once you know the basic crochet stitches, you can learn how to do camel stitch. Half double crochet, by nature of how the stitch forms, makes an extra loop on the side of the work. When you crochet into that loop it pushes the top of the stitches to the front. As you add more rounds of camel stitch, all those pushed stitches look like the Vs formed in knitting!

As with practicing any stitch, start with a basic yarn like worsted weight and whatever size hook is recommended on the yarn label.

Equipment / Tools

1 crochet hook (in recommended size for yarn)

Materials

1 Skein yarn

Gather Supplies and Choose Number of Stitches

Start camel stitch by chaining any number of stitches. Join the stitches with slip stitch, being careful not to twist the stitches.

Next work a round of half double crochet stitches and slip stitch to join.

Chain two to start the next round.

Mollie Johanson
Work Half Double Crochet Stitches in the Third Loop

For this round, you will work half double crochet stitches again, but working into the third loop.

Normally, you would insert your hook through the V at the top of the stitch from the previous round. For camel stitch, look for the angled stitch below the V. You can see this third loop just above the thumb in the photo below.

Mollie Johanson

Yarn over and insert your hook in the third loop.

From this point, the rest of the stitch is like a standard half double crochet. Yarn over and draw up a loop.

Mollie Johanson

Finish the half double crochet by wrapping the yarn over once more and then draw the yarn through all three loops on the hook.

Mollie Johanson
Continue Working Your Stitches

Continue working camel stitches in the same way, working one stitch into the third loop on each half double crochet from the previous round.

When you look at the opposite side of your work, you should start to see the Vs pushing over and forming the look of this stitch.

Mollie Johanson
Slip Stitch to Join and Chain Two and Begin the Next Round

At the end of each round, slip stitch to join and chain two to begin the next round. As you work this new round, follow the same steps, working half double crochets into the third loop.

Be sure to practice this stitch so you can work out the gauge and keep your stitches even.

Mollie Johanson

As you work, what you see is the wrong side of the crochet. It should look like what you see here.

When you flip the crochet, it reveals the right side of camel stitch, which has rows of Vs that look similar to knitting. These rows go horizontally instead of vertically as they would on knitting, but that's part of why you would want to learn different methods!

Mollie Johanson

Camel stitch works best in the round. While it is possible to work into the third loop when crocheting flat, the look is different. If you want to try this flat, you can either crochet each row like you did for each round (creating more of a ribbed look) or you can alternate working into the third loop on the front for one row and the back for the next. Try these methods to see what you like!