Let's Mesh: How To Mesh Crochet Stitch Patterns

Take the guess work out of combining crochet stitch patterns. Learn how to mesh together crochet stitches and know what will work and what will not!

The basics

Meshing stitch patterns is fun! First, you’ll just need to mesh crocheting with some basic math! All stitch patterns will have their own foundation chain/row requirements, some will mesh well together and others will not.

For example you might find a stitch that requires a foundation chain that is divisible by 4 + 2. This just means that you will need to start with a number that can be divided by 4 (like 4, 8, 12, 16…or 400) and then add 2 to that number. A foundation chain divisible of 4 + 2 will always be an even number so you wouldn’t want to try and mesh this stitch pattern with a stitch pattern that requires an odd number of stitches.

Some stitch patterns have no requirements at all (awesome!), such as a regular single crochet row but if you want to mesh your single crochet rows with another stitch pattern then you better make sure that your single crochet row has the necessary amount of stitches that you’re going to need.

When meshing stitches, It’s good to be prepared before you grab your hook and yarn, so…

Grab some paper and chart it!

If you are a visual person, like me, then you might benefit by drawing up a little crochet chart to make sure you’re crochet stitches will mesh well.

If you don’t already know about crochet symbols/charts and how to read them, you’ll want to add this to your crochet bag of tricks! Check out this tutorial on how to read a crochet diagram right here.

Before I began meshing my stitch patterns, I scribbled this mess of a chart to make sure everything was going to work.

If you’re interested in making professional looking crochet charts, you’ll have to check out Stitch Works Software.

As you might be able to see here in my scribble graph above, I am attempting to mesh a few rows of single crochet, a pretty shell stitch pattern, a bobble stitch pattern, and a post ridge stitch pattern….it looks like it can be done!

Let’s see it crocheted!

Single crochet stitch pattern

In Yellow, I started with a base ch of 25. I chained 1 for my beginning ch and worked 10 rows of 25 single crochets each row.

This set me up nicely for my shell stitch pattern. Let’s see how….

Shell stitch pattern

Each one of the shells are worked over 6 stitches but we have to add another single crochet at the end to make both sides match. This covers 25 sts (yay!). If we were to take a look at the shell stitch pattern written out, it would say that your foundation ch would need to be divisible by 6 + 1 (this is not counting your turning chain)

A perfect mesh!

Let’s add the bobble stitch pattern to the shell stitch pattern.

Bobble stitch pattern

First, I evened out my shell stitch pattern with a row of single crochet. Then I worked my bobble pattern. The stitch pattern required a base chain (or base row) that is divisible by 5 (perfect! 25 is divisible by 5).

Post stitch ridge pattern

One last stitch pattern! This is a post stitch ridge pattern. For the pattern you need a base chain (or base row) that is divisible by 2 + 1 (25 works! because 25 – 1 = 24 and 24 is divisible by 2).

So in closing we can take one last look at these base requirements for each of these stitch patterns and see exactly how wonderfully they mesh together!

Yellow single crochet stitch pattern: Base chain of any number (25 works!)

Gray shell stitch pattern: Base chain that is divisible by 6 + 1 (25 works!)

Light blue bobble stitch pattern: Base chain that is divisible by 5 (25 works!)

Blue post ridge stitch pattern: Base chain that is divisible by 2 + 1 (25 works!)

I hope you enjoyed this and it’s inspired you to do your own stitch meshing! Crochet on!!