Crocheting in the Round: Starting With an Adjustable Ring

Amy O'Neill Houck: Hello, I am Amy O'Neill Houck from AOH Designs and I am here at A Tangled Skein, a yarn store in Hyattsville, Maryland and I am showing you crochet beyond the basics. Today we are going to look at starting to crochet in the round with an adjustable ring. To begin, you are going to take your yarn without your hook and wrap it loosely two times around two fingers and this is going to give us our starting ring and then I am going to slide that little loop of the yarn off of my fingers and to hold it together I am just pinching it between my thumb and my index finger and then I am going to pick up my hook and the first thing that we have to do is to lock this ring into place so it doesn't fall apart. I am going to yarn over, I put the hook through the ring, I am going to yarn over and pull through and then yarn over and pull through again and that little slip stitch means I can now let go and the ring won't fall apart. Then you are going to work however many beginning stitches is specified in your pattern and if you were just starting say, a hat or something like that you might work six or eight stitches, so we are going to single crochet eight times into the center of this ring. An adjustable ring is a great way to start anything where you want your round to have no real hole at the top. So if you are making maybe a stuffed toy like the popular crocheted Amigurumi Dolls or you are making a hat and you don't want to use a chain ring because it will leave a little hole at the top. Continue with this adjustable ring.

So I have made eight single crochets and you see that it hasn't filled the circle, but that's okay because the next thing that we are going to do is tighten it up and I am going to pull gently on the tail to start to close the circle. It's getting smaller and you may have to just move your stitches around a little bit to make sure that it closes up evenly. Sometimes depending on how tightly you worked your stitches you will find it's a little snug and you know you want to tug firmly to snug hard enough that you break your yarn and as you pull, your foundation gets smaller and smaller and there you have it. There is the starting ring with an adjustable loop without any hole in the center and then you can go on and make your circle anyway you choose. Next we are going to show crocheting in the round increasing.