Change the look of basic crochet stitches when you crochet through the back loop only. By inserting your hook though only one of the stitch loops, you can create ribbing and ridged crochet work that stretches but remains solid.
There’s nothing too mysterious about back loop (or front loop!) crochet. Once you know how to work simple crochet stitches—even just single crochet—you can do this.
Some patterns that use back loop crochet have different names or abbreviations for this variation of basic stitches. You might see it as back loop only (blo), through the back loop (tbl), or simply back loop (bl). The same goes for crocheting through the front loop with similar abbreviations.
The first step is to get yourself familiar with the loops of the crochet stitches, so grab some DK or worsted weight yarn and a crochet hook in a size that matches your yarn, and give it a try.
Note: This tutorial uses US crochet terms, but the process is the same for UK terms.
Look at the Row of Stitches
To keep this practice swatch simple, start with a chain of 10 to 20 stitches, then work a row of single crochet.
Normally as you crochet, you tend to look at the side the faces you. To see how back loop crochet works, look at the row from the top.
Each stitch looks like a V with the top of the V pointing in the direction of the hook and the bottom of the V pointing away from the hook. Each side of the V is one of the loops.