A while back I came across this article on Top Crochet Patterns showcasing things you can make with scale effect crochet.  The links led me to this excellent tutorial on crocodile stitch from Yarn Muse.

After a lot of crocheting and unravelling, and pausing of YouTube videos, and rewinding, and rereading the instructions, I think I finally got it sussed. I couldn’t make mine turn out exactly like Yarn Muse’s but I eventually got to grips with all the techniques in the video, and then used them in the way that made sense to me. A huge thank you to Yarn Muse for her generosity and all the time and effort she took to share this stitch with everybody!

This is what my practice piece finally looked like. If you would like it to use in your own project, drop me a line and I’ll post it to you.

Front view showing staggered scales in alternate rows.

Back view showing how the scales are crocheted into pairs of scaffolding poles.

One of the many slip-ups I made while trying this stitch.

Here’s my top tips.

• For every row of scales you want, you have to make a row of “scaffolding” first. You then crochet back along the scaffolding to put the scales in.
• You can easily increase and decrease, but you have to do it when you do the scaffolding row.
• You don’t need to worry about counting the total number of stitches in the chain in the scaffolding row. Just make sure the pairs of “poles” or “bridges” are in the right place and you’ve got two stitches between each pair.
• When you’re crocheting back along the scaffolding to add the scales, you crochet down one pole in the pair, and back up the other one. It takes a little while to get the hang of the direction, but once you do it makes sense.
• This stitch is way too gappy to make the body of an amigurumi critter, all the stuffing will come out! I used it for Festival the Travelling Monster, but I made a solid body first, made a flat piece with scales separately and stitched it on top.

Good luck if you decide to give crocodile stitch a go. If you’re like me it will take a few tries to get it right, but I think it’s worth it for the final result.