Grammy Dirlam: Neice's "Dam - It" A Free Crochet Tutorial

My Grandmother, on my Mom's side was Necie Hunter. (pronounced Nee-Cee)

I learned a lot of crochet,

from her,

and because of her.

This Technique is directly from her arsenal of tricks. She never swore that I heard, so the first time she said Dam-It to me I nearly died. She used this to Hold things "inside", like a Dam holds water.

Hence, I call it Necie's Dam-It.

Ready? Here we Go!

Starting with the surface you want to build off of.
In this case , A chain of 32, 2 dc in the 3rd ch from the hook, DC in the next, and each until the last Chain. Place 3 DC in the first half of the DC loop, then rotate the chain to work the other side. Place 3 DC in the other side loop of the same chain. Pull the tail tight, to remove the hole. Finish the DC's down the chain, working over the tail and BOTH unworked loops of the chain. At the last, place 3 DC in the last st. Join as I showed you in this post, and finish off.

Insert hook into any stitch, right at the top, under the two top loops. It is easiest to show this technique with DC, but it does work with any traditional crochet stitch.

Bring the hook back to the front, also right under the two top loops. On a dc, the 3rd loop sort of separates the area nicely for practicing this trick.

I have doubled my yarn here, and have pulled the fold of it through, under the post, now catch the double strand with the hook, pull it through, as a slst. It works well with a single strand too, but for this application, I want the extra bulk.

This tutorial is turning into multiple tricks, You are getting a bonus here! As you can see, doing this, there are no ENDS to weave in later!

Insert hook into the same space it came up from on the slst, and bring it up on the other side of the post. See how the EYE of the stitch slides down the post to allow room, the top loops tend to roll down the other direction. Do not panic over this, it is all good!

catch your yarn, and pull it through, Yarn over, and pull through both loops to form a SC of sorts. It has the traditional top loops, but it does not look like a SC.

The EYE of the stitch is turned sideways, under the loops.

continue around your work, entering from the space you exited in the previous stitch. No increases, just building your DAM on the face of the DC's

When you reach the end of the round, you will insert your hook back under the post if that first st, with your hook on the OUTSIDE. Catch your yarn, and pull through, yarn over and complete the sc

Now Move your working yarn to the inside of your work

Remove hook from working loop, insert it from the inside, under the first loop. draw working loop through to inside. ( If you are continuing with the same color, skip this, and move on with your pattern as written.)

Draw yarn through to end the round.

Cut tail, mid loop

Tug tails, to be sure that slip knot has tightened.

Here is a view of the side of the dam, with it's peculiar stitch pattern. It is dense, solid, and yet still very workable

This is a view with the beginning of a round of stitches, just to show you. These are not the stitches we will be using, just what I threw on it for a picture.

This is the bottom. I do not mind the look, but when I bring you more of the pattern, We will cover this with another layer.

When I told a few friends that I was going to share this technique with you, Tamara from Moogly offered a few links to patterns that you could use to practice if you like. You would just replace the BLO with this. follow the rest of the pattern as written
These are all great patterns, but they will lend themselves well to this trick.