HOWTO: Crochet Fantail Over Established Stitches.

Crochet Fantail with 6 stitch fan (shell)

While designing a sampler (squares) afghan, one of the features I wanted was to make it chainless foundation friendly. (Pattern info here.)

I found a ton of videos and tutorials for fantails, but all of them worked directly into a chain. They universally call for skipping 3 chain stitches between the fan and the anchoring stitches between them. But skipping 3 single crochets doesn’t work.

After many tries at making this work, the solution turned out to be simple. Just skip 2 stitches, where the typical pattern skips 3 chain stitches.

Using 6 DC Fans (aka Shells)

I made a video for my blocks pattern to show how to do a fantail not starting with a chain foundation , which you can find here: Crochet Fantail w 6 Stitch repeat. I don’t think I said in the video, but I used a 5.0 mm hook and worsted (aran) weight yarn.

Chart for 6 double crochet fantail — Chart – 6 dc fan on a bed of sc

Using 8 DC Fans

For my striped afghan, I use a fuller fan. I also decided I want a rounded shell-like look, rather than the more angular look of the typical fantail. So I use double crochet V’s (rather than half double crochet.) And now, finally, after all this farting around, here are the instructions!

Instructions

In these photos I used worsted (aran) weight acrylic yarn using a 4.5mm hook for the fan rows, and a 5mm hook for the V rows. YMMV.

Special stitches:
Fan stitch (Fan): Work [4 dcs, ch1, 4 dcs] into the same st or ch sp.
V stitch (V st): Work [dc ch1, dc] into the same st.

1: Start with a foundation of a multiple of 6 + 1 basic stitches (In the photo here, I used hdcs.)

2: (Fan row) ch1, turn, sc in first stitch, *skip 2 stitches, Fan in next stitch, skip next 2 stitches, sc in next stitch*; repeat between *’s across.

Beginning of first V row — Beginning of First V Row

3: (V row) ch3, turn, dc in first sc, *ch2, skip next 4 dcs, sc in next ch sp (at top of Fan), ch2, skip next 4 dcs, V st in next sc (between Fans)*; repeat between *’s to last ch sp, ch2, skip next 4 dcs, work 2 dcs in last sc.

3 rows of crochet fantail with 8 double crochet fans, and double crochet V's

4: (Fan row) ch3, turn, work 3 dcs in first st, *skip next ch2 space, sc in next sc, sk next ch2 space, work Fan in ch sp of next V st*; repeat between *’s to last sc, work 3 dcs in last dc, work 1 dc in turning ch.

5: (V row) ch1, turn, sc in first stitch, ch2, skip next 3 dcs, *V st in next sc, ch2, skip next 4 dcs, sc in next ch space, ch2, skip next 4 dcs*; repeat between *’s to end, sc in last sc.

6: (Fan row) ch1, sc in first stitch, *skip next ch2 space, work Fan in ch space of next V st, sk next ch2 space, sc in next sc*; repeat between *’s to end.

Repeat 3 – 6 as many times as you like. You can stop at any row, depending on how high you want to work, and whether you’d like to end flat (which would mean stop on a V row, and work another row of plain stitches after), or end with a scallop (on a Fan row.)

So many options! You can choose to use fans with 6 double crochets [3 dc, ch1, 3 dc], or 8 double crochets [4 dc, ch1, 4 dc], depending on how crowded you want the fans. You can choose double crochet V’s for rounded Fan rows, or half double crochet V’s for more angular Fans. You can make color changes (as I’ve shown), or work all one color. You could even use shells (with 7 or 9 double crochet stitches) and work the single crochet of the V row into the center double crochet of each shell.

I’ve had fun playing with variations on this. I hope you have as much with the stitch as I did.