TIP: How to make crochet “Front Post Clusters”?

In this post I would like to share one wonderful crochet tip with you. It was not invented by me, but Emma Aldous is the “author”. If you tried her Sophie loves Lilla Bjorn Winter Blanket, then you are probably familiar with this tip already. Emma used it to create the outer border with Dancing Dandelions. But this tip can be used in a wide variety of projects, and Emma has kindly given me a permission to create a photo-tutorial and to share it with you.

As these are the clusters made around the posts from round below, I thought I can call them "Front Post Clusters". And it's an official name of the crochet stitch.

If you are familiar with overlay crochet technique already, you probably know that the background is always crocheted in back loops only, and then long and complex stitches are added in the free front loops of previous rounds. You can read more about this basic of overlay crochet HERE. But sometimes I can hear that you don’t like the ribbed structure of fabric cause by crocheting in back loops. And it may be not satisfying when front loops are pulled too much when overlaid stitches are “anchored” to them.

As I mainly design in overlay crochet I’ve started to think if background would not look more neat if made in a classical way – it means through both loops. And if yes, then how can overlaid stitches be attached?

I guess when it comes to single front post stitches – then it is really easy. You will just make them around the post of stitches from previous rounds. And you don’t need free front loops for that. But what if you want to make a cluster? If you just make several front post stitches together around one stitch below (as is recommended by numerous titorials) – the cluster will not look nice and puffy. It will remind a mess of stitches made in one place.

But instead you can use a wonderful (and so clever!) tip from Emma Aldous.

What is cluster? It is a set of crochet stitches that you work in one (or several) stitch(es) and join together (or cluster) at the top, forming a “puff” shape. When you add a cluster to a front loop – it is easy, right? You just make 2, 3, or 5 stitches in the same loop, and then join them together.

But when you make a front post cluster, first you should make a front post stitch, and then the rest are added to the hole at the bottom of this front post stitch. In the pictures below you will see step-by-step tutorial on how to make a 4tr-cluster (or tr4tog - US terms) around the dc stitch of the previous round (for this tutorial I used Catona* yarn from Scheepjes).

But in fact you can make front post clusters around any stitches. For example, single crochet stitch is short, that’s true. But it also has a post, and you can absolutely make a front post cluster around it (see pictures below).

Now when you know how to make front post clusters, you can try to adjust pattern in overlay crochet and to get rid of ribbing (caused by crochet in back loops only). You can now try to crochet through both loops only and all overlaid stitches around the posts, rather than in front loops.

I would like to thank Emma Aldous once again for this wonderful tip. I’ve used it myself in my new project, which will stay a secret for a while. But I promise to reveal it soon!

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