Tapestry Crochet for Beginners: Technique, Charts & a Free Practice Pattern

Tapestry crochet is the technique behind those bold, graphic crochet bags and wall hangings: hearts, checkerboards, mountains, and lettering in crisp color blocks. It’s all scsc = single crochetUK: double crochet (dc)Insert hook, yarn over, pull up a loop (2 loops), yarn over, pull through both. The shortest, densest basic stitch., with one extra idea: you carry the unused color inside your stitches, so there are no loose strands on the back. Once that clicks, you can crochet any design you can draw on graph paper.

Save

What You Need

Save

• Smooth cotton in two contrasting colors. Cotton gives crisp edges, and high contrast makes the pattern pop.
• A hook half a size smaller than usual. Tight stitches hide the carried yarn better.
• A grid chart. Graph paper and colored pencils are enough to design your own.

Technique 1: Carrying the Yarn

While you work with color A, lay color B along the top of the row you’re working into, and crochet right over it. Your stitches wrap around the carried strand and hide it.

Save

Keep the carried strand relaxed. If you pull it tight, the fabric puckers.

Technique 2: The Clean Color Change

The secret to sharp color changes: switch colors on the last yarn over of the stitch before the new color starts.

1. Work the last sc in color A until you have 2 loops on the hook.
2. Drop color A (it will now be carried) and yarn over with color B.
3. Pull color B through both loops. The stitch looks like color A, but the loop on your hook is now color B, ready for the next stitch.

Save

Flip your work over and you’ll see the payoff: no floats, just a dense, reversible fabric.

Save

Technique 3: Straighter Stitches

Tapestry stitches naturally lean slightly. That’s fine for most projects, but for crisp vertical lines try working in the BLOBLO = back loop onlyUK: back loop onlyInsert your hook under only the back loop of the stitch. Creates a ridge and a stretchy, ribbed texture. or inserting your hook between the two legs of the stitch below (the “waistcoat” or “center” single crochet).

Save

Free Practice Pattern: Checkerboard Coaster

This small coaster teaches everything: carrying, clean color changes, and the golden rule of tapestry crochet, “work each stitch in the same color as the stitch below it.”

Tick as you go

Tapestry Checkerboard Coaster

0 / 12 done

1. With color A: Ch 25.
2. Row 1: Sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across. (24 sc)
3. Row 2: Ch 1, turn. Carrying B from here on, work [4 sc in A, 4 sc in B] 3 times. (24)
4. Rows 3–5: Ch 1, turn. Work each st in the same color as the st below it. (24)
5. Row 6: Ch 1, turn. Swap the blocks: work each st in the OPPOSITE color to the st below it. (24)
6. Rows 7–9: Ch 1, turn. Work each st in the same color as the st below it.
7. Row 10: Ch 1, turn. Swap the blocks again (opposite color to the st below).
8. Rows 11–13: Ch 1, turn. Same color as the st below.
9. Row 14: Swap the blocks. Rows 15–17: same color as the st below.
10. Row 18: Swap the blocks. Rows 19–21: same color as the st below.
11. Row 22: Ch 1, turn. Cut B. Sc in each st across in A only. (24)
12. Border: Ch 1, sc evenly around all four sides in A, 3 sc in each corner. Join and fasten off.

You'll have 5 bands of 4 rows each, for a 6 × 5 checkerboard. Change color on the final yarn over of the stitch before each new block.

Finished! Fasten off and admire it.

Reset

Save

Reading and Designing Tapestry Charts

A tapestry chart is a grid: each square is one sc in that square’s color. Row 1 is at the bottom. Read right-side rows right to left and wrong-side rows left to right. For the full breakdown, see our lesson on reading crochet charts.

Save

To design your own, draw a rectangle on graph paper the width of your project in stitches, then color in squares. Keep motifs simple at first: hearts, stripes, triangles, and initials.

Keeping Two Balls From Tangling

Place one ball on each side of your chair. At the end of each row, turn your work clockwise; at the end of the next row, turn it counter-clockwise. The strands untwist themselves.

Save

When you work in the round, like a bag, there’s no turning at all, which is one reason tapestry bags are so popular.

What to Make With Tapestry Crochet

• Bags. Carried yarn makes a thick, structured fabric that holds its shape: ideal for totes and shoulder bags. See crochet bag ideas.

Save

• Wall hangings. No fitting and no seams, so they’re perfect for your first big chart.

Save

• Coasters, pouches, and pillows. Small, quick canvases for new motifs. More ideas in crochet home decor and crochet pouches.

Tapestry vs. Mosaic Crochet

If you love geometric colorwork, you’ll hear about mosaic crochet too. It uses only one color per row (no carrying) and creates the pattern by dropping double crochet stitches down into earlier rows. Mosaic is lighter and drapier; tapestry is sturdier and more precise for pictures and lettering.

Save