From Hexagon to Round: How to Single Crochet The Perfect Circle

Learn how to make the perfect single crochet circle with this easy trick!

Single crochet hexagon vs single crochet circle

If you want to make a single crochet circle in the round, let’s say for an amigurumi, a coaster, or a hat, you might notice that your circle is not round.

Instead, the more rounds you crochet, the more your circle looks like a hexagon!

Why is that? Where did you go wrong?

The good news is that most likely, you did not do anything wrong. The problem is in the pattern itself.

Let’s see why.

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How to Single Crochet the Perfect Circle - Free Pattern - Raffamusa Designs

Why Do you Get a Hexagon instead of a circle?

The most common crochet pattern for making a circle will look like this:

Make an adjustable ring or magic circle (MC)*.

* Please, find all the abbreviations at the bottom of this blog post.

Round 1. Sc 6. (6 sts)
Round 2. Sc inc 6. (12 sts)
Round 3. (Sc inc 1, sc 1) 6 times. (18 sts)
Round 4. (Sc inc 1, sc 2) 6 times. (24 sts)
Round 5. (Sc inc 1, sc 3) 6 times. (30 sts)
Round 6. (Sc inc 1, sc 4) 6 times. (36 sts)
Round 7. (Sc inc 1, sc 5) 6 times. (42 sts)
Round 8. (Sc inc 1, sc 6) 6 times. (48 sts)
Round 9. (Sc inc 1, sc 7) 6 times. (54 sts)
Round 10. (Sc inc 1, sc 8) 6 times. (60 sts)

And so on…

Now, the problem with this pattern is that round after round, all the increases are all stacked on top of each other.

To get a more visual understanding of this, take a look at the image below, where the increases are highlighted by the white Vs.

How to single crochet a hexagon - Raffamusa Designs

Of course, you can use this to your advantage when you actually do want to crochet a hexagon!

For example, take a look at this simple and elegant Hexagon Trivet that is made using the knit stitch.

Knit Stitch Hexagon Trivet - Free Crochet Pattern - Raffamusa Designs

How to Single Crochet a Perfect Circle

To fix the hexagon shape, all you need to do is to shift the placement of the increases at each round.

There are many ways in which you can alternate the position of the increases and get a perfect circle, but essentially, there are two options:

  • You either break the repeats in all even numbered rounds;
  • Or with the odd numbered rounds.

And the result will basically be the same (see photo below for a comparison).

How to Single Crochet the perfect circle - two different ways - Raffamusa Designs

Here, I’ll show you both ways.

Method 1 – Alternate Increases in Even-numbered rounds

The first method is to alternate the increases on each even-numbered round.

This method is very easy to remember for the simple reason that it’s so easy to divide an even number in half!

So, let’s see how this works…

How to single crochet a circle - even numbered rows - Raffamusa Designs

The beginning is the same, up to round 3.

We start with a MC.

Round 1. Sc 6. (6 sts)
Round 2. Sc inc 6. (12 sts)
Round 3. (Sc inc 1, sc 1) 6 times. (18 sts)

Time to break the repeat!

When you get to round 4, it’s time to break the repeat! What does that mean?

The repeat would be (sc inc 1, sc 2).

However, instead of doing that, we shift the increase by breaking the 2 sc in half.

Two divided by two makes 1 sc, which you place immediately at the beginning of the round.

Then, you start crocheting the repeats as normal, and at the end, you’ll complete the half repeat that you broke at the beginning.

So, round 4 becomes (I underlined the broken repeat!):

Round 4. Sc 1, (sc inc 1, sc 2) 5 times, sc inc 1, sc 1. (24 sts)

Round 5 is an odd round, so it stays the same.

Round 5. (Sc inc 1, sc 3) 6 times. (30 sts)

But for round 6, again, you’ll need to break the repeat!

This time, the repeat is (sc inc 1, sc 4). So, you need to divide 4 by 2 and place those sc stitches right at the beginning. This way, round 6 will be:

Round 6. Sc 2, (sc inc 1, sc 4) 5 times, sc inc 1, sc 2. (36 sts)

And you apply this logic to the rest of your pattern.

Round 7. (Sc inc 1, sc 5) 6 times. (42 sts)
Round 8. Sc 3, (sc inc 1, sc 6) 5 times, sc inc 1, sc 3. (48 sts)
Round 9. (Sc inc 1, sc 7) 6 times. (54 sts)
Round 10. Sc 4, (sc inc 1, sc 8) 5 times, sc inc 1, sc 4. (60 sts)

And so on.

Method 2 – Alternate Increases in Odd-numbered rounds

This second method is a bit more complicated to remember because the shift happens in the odd-numbered rounds.

The odd-numbered rounds correspond to those where the repeats have an odd number of single crochet stitches. For example, (sc inc 1, sc 3) or (sc inc 1, sc 5), etc.

And since you can’t divide them by two, things get a bit messier.

Nevertheless, below, you can find an example of how to break the repeats on the odd-numbered rounds and get a perfect single crochet circle!

How to single crochet a circle - odd numbered rows - Raffamusa Designs

I won’t explain step-by-step why I divided the repeats that way, but if you want, you can have fun with it and try to come up with your own way to break repeats!

One thing to notice is that in this case, I actually also inverted the position of the increase in the even-numbered rounds!

Make a MC.

Round 1. Sc 6. (6 sts)
Round 2. Sc inc 6. (12 sts)
Round 3. (Sc inc 1, sc 1) 6 times. (18 sts)
Round 4. (Sc 2, sc inc 1) 6 times. (24 sts)
Round 5. Sc 1, (sc inc 1, sc 3) 5 times, sc inc 1, sc 2. (30 sts)
Round 6. (Sc 4, sc inc 1) 6 times. (36 sts)
Round 7. Sc 2, (sc inc 1, sc 5) 5 times, sc inc 1, sc 3. (42 sts)
Round 8. (Sc 6, sc inc 1) 6 times. (48 sts)
Round 9. Sc 3, (sc inc 1, sc 7) 5 times, sc inc 1, sc 4. (54 sts)
Round 10. (Sc 8, sc inc 1) 6 times. (60 sts)

And so on.

I hope you enjoyed this pattern tutorial! If you have any questions, please, leave a comment and I’ll try to help!

Also, feel free to share your perfect single crochet circles on Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #raffamusadesigns

Explore more crochet shapes with these free tutorials!

MATERIALS USed in this Tutorial

  • 3.5-mm (E-4 USA, 9 UK) Crochet Hook
  • DK (3, Light) Yarn
  • Tapestry Needle

You can use any yarn weight and the appropriate hook!

CROCHET ABBREVIATIONS (US TERMS)

Ch – Chain
Inc – Increase
MC – Magic Circle
Sc – Single Crochet
St – Stitch

PATTERN NOTES

  • If the pattern says “sc 2”, it means that you have to crochet 1 sc into each of the next 2 sts.
  • (…) – Repeat the instruction within brackets for the indicated number of times.

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