Often when crocheting you will want to create a lovely circle that will sit nice and flat
Some people say there is a secret formula to creating the perfect flat circle. But it's not really a secret, it's just a clever way to evenly increase around to keep it flat
When crocheting in a circle, if there were never any increases, the crochet would form a tube.
To make it a flat circle, you need to increase stitches in each row
Here is the formula to use.
Formula
Increase by the starting number of stitches in every row.
Here's an example or the number increase:
Row 1: 12 stitches.
Row 2: 12 + 12 total 24 stitches,
Row 3: 24 + 12 total 36 stitches
Row 4: 36 + 12 total 48 stitches
Row 5: 48 + 12 total 60 stitches
Row 6: 60 + 12 total 72 stitches
The usual way to create this into a circle is by crocheting like this:
Row 1: Magic circle, 12 dc in circle. (12 stitches)
Row 2: 2 dc in each stitch around (24 stitches)
Row 3: 1 dc in next st, 2 dc in next st (36 stitches)
Row 4: 1 dc in each of next 2 sts, 2 dc in next stitch (48 stitches)
Row 5: 1 dc in each of next 3 sts, 2 dc in next stitch (60 stitches)
Row 6: 1 dc in each of next 4 sts, 2 dc in next stitch (72 stitches)
When making a circle in dc (tr UK/Aus) the most common number of starting stitches is 12, but it can be anything between 10 to 14 stitches for best results.
But use less for sc (dc in UK/Aus), 6 to 10 stitches works best
Next week I will explain what to do when things go wrong with the flat circle.
More posts on making circles