Leafhopper Crochet Stitch

I am still working on my 2024 CAL Terrific Textures from the Unravelled Mitten and boy am I behind. The square I am working on gave me such trouble that I want to make a post about it so that someone else on the struggle bus that I was stuck on can finally reach their stop.

So I hope this helps!

Leafhopper Stitch

The Leafhopper stitch is made over three stitches, with two clusters of front post double crochet worked into the row below split between the three stitches. It’s a cute stitch with a nice texture, which is why the Unraveled Mitten creator has included it in the CAL for this year, as the focus is on dramatic textures for each square.

Leafhopper Stitch Tutorial

Abbreviations

US Terminology
Ch: chain
St: stitches
Sc: single crochet
Dc: double crochet
Fpcl: front post cluster
LCL: leafhopper cluster (see instructions above)

Instructions

The Leafhopper stitch requires you to chain a multiple 4 +3 to start with. (So just for the example (4*5)+3= 23 st. or (4*6)+3=27

Row 1: Dc in 3rd ch from hook and in each ch across. Turn.
Row 2: Ch 2, 2 dc. * LCL over next st, dc in next 3. Repeat from * across omitting 1 dc from the last repeat.
Row 3: Ch2 turn, dc across.
Row 4: Ch2 turn, 3 dc, *LCL over next stitch, dc in next 3 st. Repeat from * until 4 st remain. Dc in last 4 st. Row 5: Ch 2 turn, dc across.

LCL Leafhopper Cluster

This cluster stitch is a a split cluster that is worked over three stitches. To start, you’ll work around the post of the stitch directly under the stitch you just made in thee previous row. Then you skip 1 stitch. And lastly you’ll finish around the post of the next stitch in the previous row.

Step 1: yo, work a front post dc into the st directly below the dc you just worked, yo, and pull up the loop twice. Keep these loops loose and make sure to pull them up tall. There should be five total loops on your hook.

Step 2: Yo one more time and pull through 4 of your loops. That is the front post cluster stitch (fpcl). There will be two loops that remain on your hook.

Step 3: skip the dc next to the one you were just working in and work into the stitch next to the skipped stitch. Yo, work front post dc around the post of the next stitch from the previous row, yo, and pull up loop twice. Once again, it’s important to keep these loops that you pull up loose. There should be 6 total loops on your hook.

Step 4: yo, pull through 4 loops. There should be 3 stitches remaining

Step 5: yo and pull through the remaining stitches.

There’s a VERY IMPORTANT detail next. So pay attention.

To continue, work your next dc into the stitch BEHIND the last post of the leafhopper cluster. It’s easiest to look at your work from the top so that you can see the stitch you need to work into.

That’s what I kept doing wrong. I was not working into the correct stitches from the previous row and then I was not making the dc into the stitch behind the fpdc and it was driving me round the bend when I wasn’t ending up with the right amount of stitches.

Finally, one YouTube tutorial made it make sense to me. What I was doing wrong is something that I am almost certain other people will do wrong because of the way the pattern is written it doesn’t say anything about working into the stitch behind the last part of the Leafhopper cluster. But that’s what you have to do.

Leafhopper Cluster YouTube Tutorial

I post crochet patterns sometimes, as well as how-to posts for crochet techniques. I suppose this post falls somewhere in both of those categories.