Crochet in the round, 3 ways.

When you learned to crochet, you were likely told that when you crochet in the round, the right side is always facing. You were also likely told that you could either work in continuous rounds (aka in a spiral) or in joined rounds (with a slip stitch in the first stitch). It’s often a surprise to crocheters that there is a 3rd way to crochet in the round: joined and turned rounds. 

Why so many options? Well, as with everything it’s a question of what you’re making, sure, but also designer and personal preference.

In the 3 samples below, I crocheted circles that all have the same number of stitches and rounds, with the same hook and yarn, but using one of the 3 methods for each: continuous rounds, joined rounds and joined & turned rounds.

Yarn used: Yarnspirations, With Love

Hook used: Furls Alpha, 5 mm

Pattern:

Round 1: 5 sc in a magic ring. Round 2: 10 sc. Round 3: 15 sc… Round 10: 50 sc.

A-Crocheting in continuous rounds – aka working in a spiral.

When you crochet in continuous rounds, you are building the rounds into each other, rather than on top of each other. At the end of a round and after making the last stitch, you simply keep going into the next stitch; this new stitch becomes the 1st stitch of the new round.

In this method, the right side is always facing.

It’s important to note that when using this method, getting lost is very easy. You’ll definitely want to place a stitch marker in the first stitch and move it up into the 1st stitch of the new round as you work.

This ease in getting lost has one major advantage though: there is no noticeable difference between rounds!

When the increases are worked without alterations, you’ll see a faint pinwheel defined by the increases.

Once you finish off, you’ll be left with a jog between the last stitch and the first stitch of the last round. You can hide this jog by using the invisible join method.

This method is most used in Amigurumi.

B-Crocheting in joined rounds

Crocheting in joined rounds means that after you’ve worked the last stitch of the round, you slip stitch into the 1st stitch to join. Then you’ll chain and crochet the next round as per your pattern (or inspiration).

In this method, the right side is always facing.

You can tell that there is a difference in gauge here. This circle is larger than the other two. It’s important to note this because if you modify from this technique to one of the others, you’ll need to adjust for this difference.

Then again, you should always check your gauge ;P

Here, the pinwheel shape formed by the increases is more obvious, as well as join (the slip stitch) between rounds. It’s not noticeable in these samples, but if we were working on a tube (ie a cowl or something like that), the join is not straight; it tilts backward or forward (depending on your right handedness or left handedness). A lot of people dislike this.

A final drawback to this method is that unless you’re attentive, you might inadvertently add stitches by working into the slip stitch. You can avoid this with stitch markers & counting.

This method is the most commonly used and taught method for crocheting in the round.

C-Crocheting in joined, turned rounds

In this method, when you reach the end of a round, not only will you slip stitch into the 1st stitch, but you’ll also turn your work – the same way you would if you were working in rows.

In this method, you’ll be working into the right side and wrong side, alternatively.

Why do I prefer this method (because I do) ? For 2 main reasons:

(1) It preserves the look of crocheting in rows. I find this useful to maintain the same look throughout a pattern that uses both rows and rounds.

I also prefer the look of working in rows, so I bring it to most of my designs.

(2) The join is straight; it doesn’t tilt like in method B.

It is true that you’ll need to take care not to omit or add stitches (that pesky slip stitch will make you almost *want* to do both). Again, this is easily remedied with markers and counting =)

So there you have it. 3 methods to crochet in the round.

Do you have a favorite? Let me know in the comments!

xo Julie