Had this knowledge simply escaped me over the past fifty years or so in which I have been crocheting? Well…….no: the older crochet books on my bookshelves do not mention it.
It was only when I realized that the scarves a friend had made which I had thought were woven, were actually crocheted, was I alerted to the fact of what happens when you hook into either the front or the back of the stitch and not under both front and back as I had always done – and seen others do.
This book from 1986 was the one she happened on when she learned to crochet a few months ago.
She came across the "Under One Loop Only" variation and began to experiment. And produced those scarves with texture and drape and a wow! factor that I had not seen before in ordinary crochet.
To be honest, I don't think I would have recognized the impressive difference simply by coming across the information in the book along with these illustrations: seeing and touching and experiencing the flow qualities of those scarves was needed.
This is the start of a mitten and that's single crochet into the front of the stitch going back and forth lengthwise along the hand part. The design reminds me of Greek keys or snail trails.
The other side is Tunisian crochet, thus the long hook; it worked just fine for the single crochet as well.
Here a knitted fingerless glove is being turned into a mitt by adding crochet to the top, again single crochet into front of stitch and look what is happening as I decrease – doubly exuberant!
The extension at the wrist is giving a bit of a cuff and more of a grip.
I wonder what hooking into only the back of the stitch is going to look and feel like. And varying from front to back, front to back …… on one row…..on different rows.