How To Make A Perfect Crocheted Circle

Today I’ve been creating a brand-new pattern for a lidded basket which is perfect for storing face scrubbies or trinkets or just for looking cute on your bathroom shelf, dressing table or sill. I’ve been using double stranded yarn and having fun with colour mixing. I’ll stock up my Etsy shop with gorgeous baskets and the pattern very soon in case you fancy making your own.

Talking to quite a few of you about your crochet journey it seems that crocheting in a circle is quite a hit and miss affair. When I first started to teach myself to crochet, I remember finding a trusty pattern and sticking to it …. It worked until I tried to adapt it or changed my yarn or hook size. Then there was frustration and there are several abandoned curling-up-at-the-edges ovals still languish at the bottom of my yarn basket as a testament to this!

So, whilst hooking away at my new creations I have put together a few things that I wish I’d known about crocheting in circles for your pondering. So, even if you’re not circle-tempted at the moment maybe grab a cuppa and have a read? I hope you find something useful amongst it:

A circle begins much like a Granny Square with a magic ring or a 3-chain loop and is worked in rounds. Question 1: How many stitches should I make into the Magic ring or loop? Answer: That depends. Not very helpful is it? Don’t panic – there are some guidelines!

If you’re Double Crocheting then 6-10 stitches is the usual range. As with most things crochetable it does depend on your tension and yarn but somewhere within this range you’ll find the number that suits you and your project. It’s worth a play around if you’re thinking of making up your own circles. Half Trebles tend to take between 8 and 12 stitches; Trebles tend to use between 10 and 14 starting stitches. If you think back to what you used to know about geometry, it’s about fitting stitches into the space – longer trebles spread out further into the body of the circle and so more fit in at the thinner base of the stitch. Also, you may not always need a close, dense texture to your piece and so may want fewer stitches. Have an experiment.

The next step is to work out how many stitches you need in subsequent rounds. If you can imagine colouring in rounds of a circle, you’ll see that each ring has a greater diameter and so we need to increase our number of stitches. But by how many? When I first began hooking circles, I used lots of mandala patterns or coasters with funky clusters and shaping on each round, so it was a long time before I worked out what was going on with circle stitch maths. If you’re following a pattern you really don’t need to understand the maths, but I found that, even with my aged and maths-underused brain, it was really enlightening to understand the stitch pattern and, if nothing else, it helped me to be able to put down my work and pick it up later without a big counting panic and a frantic search for whichever pattern I may have used in the depths of my phone! I promise that it’s easier than it sounds, so slurp on that cuppa and buckle in…

Let’s imagine we have made a magic circle or loop and for round 1 have stitched 6 double crochets into it. Round 2 is very easy: chain 1 (more on this later – just go with it for now!) then go around and stitch 2 Double Crochets into each stitch. Now we have double the amount we had on round 1. We have 6 x 2 =12 stitches.

For round 2 we want to make increases (2 stitches into one place) but we don’t want to be quite as drastic as we were in round 2. We want to increase sometimes and simply Double Crochet at other times. The number of normal Double Crochets between each increase is greater with each row and once you’ve worked out how many to slot in you can repeat the pattern all the way around. This is where some people give up – but don’t! Hang in there – I’ve got a simple way of working out how many normal stitches to do between increases. Keep reading!

The number of stitches in each repeat (Double Crochet stitches between increase stitch added to the 2DC increase) is exactly the same as the row number.

Fireworks went off in my brain when I first realised this!

So far, we have:

Round 1: Magic ring with 6 Double Crochets

Round 2: 2 Double Crochets in each stitch. There are 2 stitches in this repeating pattern: [2 DC]

Round 3: 2DC in the first stitch; 1DC in the next – repeat this all the way around. There are 3 stitches in this repeating pattern for row 3! [2DC; 1DC]

So on Round 4: 2DC in the first stitch; the repeating pattern will be DC DC 2DC making 4 stitches in this repeating pattern for row 4![2DC; DC; DC]

Just remember that each repeating pattern must be made up of 2DC (an increase) and then a number of stitches, and the total is the same as the round number. Now we’re flying!

Here's a little test then: what will the repeating pattern look like for round 6?

On row 6 the repeating pattern will be [2DC; DC; DC; DC; DC] (6 stitches in total – repeat this all around the circle)

Did you get it? I hope so. Even if you didn’t just yet, once you’ve followed a circle pattern a few times you’ll suddenly see it. Hang in there. Of course, if you prefer, you can simply follow the pattern below and not ever think about how it works. That’s fine too.

Another question I’m often asked is “How do I know how many stitches I should have at the end of a round? (Yes, I know I’m always making you count stitches but when you’re setting off it’s very easy to mistake a loop and add a few rogue stitches which will only multiply with time. This gets easier I promise!) I’ve got an easy short cut trick for this too. To work out how many stitches you should have simply multiply the number of starting stitches (in this case 6DC) by the row number. So, row 4 should have 6 x 4 = 24 DC stitches; row 12 should contain 6 x 12 = 72 stitches.

Maths lesson over for today!

In summary, start off your circle and for each round use a pattern repeat made up of a 2-stitch increase and whatever number of normal stitches adds up to the row number. Check your stitch count by multiplying your row number by the starting stitches in your magic ring or loop.

……or just follow the pattern below 😊

If you’re not too bamboozled, I also have a few handy hints about technique too, but feel free to have a break and come back to these!

Handy texture hints:

At the beginning of each round I always chain one- this doesn’t count as a stitch but just lifts the work a little. Some patterns call for chain 2 or 3 just as you would in a Granny Square or at the beginning of a horizontal row to make an imitation double or treble stitch. However, in a circle I find that this is gappy and makes the join really obvious. Just one chain is sufficient to lift the work and to sit underneath the stitch, filling the seam gap without causing bother. This chain doesn’t count as a stitch – it’s just a lifter and filler (must be an age thing!) so when the round is complete, you simply slip stitch into the top of the first double crochet stitch, overlooking this humble chain stitch and leaving it to do its thing.

And finally, a note about increasing: Placing your increases in the same point of the repeat each time can result in a hexagonal shape, particularly with tighter yarns such as the cotton in this picture. When complete and blocked this becomes much less noticeable but you can avoid it completely by placing your increases in a different place within the repeat for each row. So:

Row 7: 2DC, DC DC DC DC DC (7 stitch repeat)

Row 8: DC DC 2DC DC DC DC DC (8 stitch repeat with the increase slightly further along the repeating pattern.)

I hope this little adventure into the art of crochet circles has been useful. Feel free to comment or come and join in a discussion on my Facebook page @Sue’sCrochetCafe. I love seeing your creations – whatever level of skill you’re currently at.

As ever, Happy Hooking,

Sue x