Textured Stitches Made Easy: Wavy Stitch Tutorial

When you think of wavy stitches, what comes to mind? Maybe the classic chevron stitch? Or maybe a combination of shell stitches? Don’t get me wrong, those are beautiful stitch combinations, but those are hard to use for amigurumi because the stuffing pokes through easily. What if I told you there’s a wavy stitch that’s tight enough that you can make amigurumi with it? Yep! Let’s dive into another segment of Textured Stitches Made Easy: Wavy Stitch Tutorial.

Textured Stitches Made Easy: Wavy Stitch Tutorial

The Wavy Stitch, also know as the Almond Ripple Stitch, is a combination of slip stitches and half double crochets worked in a repeating pattern that creates a beautiful wave texture.

AND, this unique stitch can be worked flat or in the round! I’ll give you instructions for how to do both below.

Let’s start with the flat version.

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Working the Wavy Stitch Flat

Materials & Abbreviations

• 2 colors of yarn (I used Stitch Basics
  • Stitch Multiple: 8 + 5
  • Repeat: 4 row repeat
  • Rows 1 & 2 are worked in Color A and Rows 3 & 4 are worked in Color B (so you’ll be changing colors every 2 rows).
  • Slip stitch LOOSELY (it’ll make working into your stitches SO much easier)
  • Ch 1 does not count as a stitch

  Let’s Make a Swatch

  Chain a multiple of 8 and then add 5 chains on the end. For my sample I chained 29 stitches.

  Row Repeat:

  Start with Color A.

  Row 1: starting in the second ch from the hook, 4BLsl st, [4BLhdc, 4BLsl st] 3 times, ch 1, turn. (28)

  Row 2: 4sl st, [4hdc, 4sl st] 3 times, ch 1, turn. (28) Drop Color A, pick up Color B and use it to do the ch 1.

  Row 3: 4BLhdc, [4BLsl st, 4BLhdc] 3 times, ch 1, turn. (28)

  Row 4: 4hdc, [4sl st, 4hdc] 3 times, ch 1, turn. (28) In the final hdc, drop Color B and finish the stitch with Color A, then ch 1.

  To continue, you’ll repeat Rows 1-4 until your swatch is the length you want. You should always end on Row 4 (with Color B).

  

  Just a note, in the sample photo above, my starting chain was 45, so for each row I repeated the stitches in [ ] 5 times instead of 3.

  

  You can keep going with this repeat for as long as you like! There’s lots of great possibilities for this stitch including a super cute Wavy Stitch pumpkin! You can check out this pattern for free right here on the blog!

  Are we friends yet?

  Working the Wavy Stitch in the Round

  Let me preface this by saying, this stitch is very different in the round. We’ll still be using slip stitches and half doubles, but that’s about all that’s the same.

  The reason working in the round is so different is because doing continuous rounds (and not turning your work) creates an issue with not only the stitch repeat, but the row repeat as well.

  But don’t worry! I did all the annoying math for you to get it to work.

  Materials & Abbreviations

  • at least 2 colors of yarn (I used Stitch Basics
    • Stitch Multiple: 3
    • There’s only a 2 row repeat for this version.
    • Slip stitch LOOSELY (it’ll make working into your stitches SO much easier)
    • You’ll be switching colors each row, so always complete the final stitch of the row with the next color.

    Let’s Make a Swatch

    To start, you’ll need to either:

    • Chain a multiple of 3, then slip stitch in the first chain to form a ring (I don’t really like this method personally, but it’s up to you).
    • Start with a magic ring and follow the instructions below (this is how I started mine).

    Start with Color A.

    Row 0: MR6 (place a stitch marker in the first stitch)

    Row 1: inc 6 times. (12)

    Row 2: [inc, sc] 6 times. (18)

    Row 3: [sc, inc, sc] 6 times. (24)

    Row 4: [inc, 7sc] 3 times. (27) Now we have a multiple of 3 that will work. If you wanted to go larger, the next stitch count that would work would be 33, then 39, etc…

    Now, we’ll begin the Wavy Stitch. Here’s the repeat:

    Row 5: [3BLsl st, 3BLhdc] 4 times, 3BLsl st. (27) Drop Color A and complete the final sl st by pulling up a loop with Color B.

    Row 6: [3BLhdc, 3BLsl st] 4 times, 3BLhdc. (27) Drop Color B and complete the final hdc with Color A.

    To continue, you would continuously repeat Rows 5 and 6, switching colors as you go.

    

    In this example photo, I’m using a bunch of colors because this is my temperature snake project, but you can see how the stitch gets a little lost when the colors don’t alternate.

    If you want to make your very own Kelvin the Temp Snake, you can grab his pattern right now in my Etsy, Ravelry & Ribblr shops!

    

    Summary

    Now you can use this cool stitch for both flat and round projects! Do you have any awesome ideas inspired by this stitch? Leave a comment below.

    And if you enjoyed this article be sure to Pin it for later and share it with your friends! Make sure you’re subscribed to my newsletter too so you don’t miss my next free pattern release (hint: it uses this stitch!).

    Check out some of the other cool stitches from this series including the Feather Stitch and the Double Loop Stitch.

    Chanel Beauchamp

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