dc — Double crochet (Abbreviation)

dc stands for "double crochet" — one full height step taller than hdc. Yarn over, insert the hook, yarn over and pull up a loop (three loops now on the hook), yarn over and pull through two loops, then yarn over and pull through the final two loops separately — that two-step closing, rather than hdc's single three-loop pull, is what gives dc a smoother, less ridged top edge.

The height and openness this produces

Because dc wraps and closes in more distinct steps than sc or hdc, it produces a taller, more open stitch — real, useful drape for garments and blankets that don't want single crochet's dense stiffness, at the cost of working up with visible gaps between stitches at a loose gauge that sc and hdc's tighter structure doesn't show as readily.

A genuine terminology collision, not just an offset

Unlike hdc, which simply goes by a different name in UK terms, UK "double crochet" is an entirely different, shorter stitch — it's what US patterns call single crochet. This is the single biggest, most consequential abbreviation trap in crochet: seeing "dc" in a pattern and assuming it always means the same tall US stitch is a mistake that changes an entire project's fabric height if the pattern is actually written in UK terms.

Its yarn-use figure, and the crochet-versus-knitting question it touches

This site solves dc's constant directly from three independently designed published projects rather than interpolating it the way hdc's is — but even a figure measured this directly sits inside a larger open question this site doesn't paper over: whether crochet genuinely uses more or less yarn than knitting at a comparable gauge, where the honest answer is that the evidence itself disagrees.

Related abbreviations

• hdc — one step shorter, closed in a single three-loop pull rather than two
• tr — treble crochet, one step taller than dc, adding a further yarn-over before insertion

FAQ

Does dc always mean the same stitch height across every English-language pattern? No — because of the US/UK naming collision above, always confirm which convention a specific pattern uses before assuming "dc" means the taller US stitch.

Is dc a common choice for garment blankets specifically? Yes, very commonly — its balance of drape, speed (fewer total stitches needed to cover a given area than sc), and moderate openness makes it a frequent default for blanket bodies, especially at bulkier yarn weights.