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Thursday, January 5, 2012

working in the round

Hats and scarves are my go to project when I don't have anything particular in mind. Crochet Me recently talked about hats in their newsletter. They have a page at the web site on this topic. Notice the 3 rules for making hats. I have mentioned these myself in past posts, but they bear repeating. 

When working in the round, whether it be for a hat or any round project like a coaster for example, you start off with a particular number of stitches and you increase by that number on each round as long as you want the work to remain flat. That beginning number depends on the height of the stitch in which you are working.

For example, if you are working in single crochet, you might start with 6 chains in center of ring. How you make your ring is your choice. In future rounds, you would increase by the same number you start off with. So in this case, you would increase in every stitch since you have six stitches and you want to increase by 6 stitches. So work 2 sc in each stitch. In the next round you still want to increase by 6 but you have 12 stitches, so you would increase in every other stitch. And so on...

For half double crochet, you might start with 8. So you would have 16 on the second round, 24 on the third etc.

For double crochet, which is the stitch I most like to work with, you might start off with 12. So your next round is 24, then 36, 48, etc...

For triple crochet, you might start with 24, so the next round would be 48 etc. It would increase more rapidly since you start off with more stitches.

Now, that said, I sometimes like to vary it up and increase half the amount to give a more gentle slope to my hats, and not such a flat top.  But we are talking here of how to make your piece stay flat.

There have been some good articles and tidbits about working in the round in many books and magazines. The one that comes to mind is Pauline Turner's  chart in her book How to Crochet.

Besides thinking about working in the round, today I added a pattern to the Charity Patterns section at Crochet Cabana. It is not a new pattern, but one that was on the site years ago. I did some tweaking and decided it would be a nice pattern to make for needy babies and children. It is called Baby Love and Prayers. Those who have been around a while might remember it.

In addition to that I've been working on a filet piece. It is a Dalek from Doctor Who. I hope to also make an Adipose, an Ood, and K-9. You can find the charts at Meredee's site. I've known about them for a while, but finally decided to do it. I am not using thread, however, but thin yarn. Pictures when it's done, of course!

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

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