How to read this pattern?

[reeceepeacee]

Hi! I'm a very new crocheter and I love it so far! But, I'm startibg on a hat project and I don't exactly understand what the pattern wants me to do. It has me start by chaining 3 and then it says "11dc in 3rd check from hook"

I was just confused as to how I would do 11 double crochets on my tiny little chain. Do I turn and keep stacking them on top of each other? I've never done a double crochets before this and it seems simple enough and I can do the first one but I don't know where to put the other 10 that I need.

Thank you!

[magiccrochetfan]

Hi, welcome to the ville

 

you just keep putting the stitches into that one chain.  in my opinion this is not a great way to start a hat becsause i feel it puts a lot of strain on that chain.  

[magiccrochetfan]

here is a tutorial on working in the round http://www.crochetcabana.com/html/round_howto.html

 

in your case, if you don't like making 11 dc into the one chain, I would probably chain 4 and join into a ring with a slip stitch.  then chain 2 or 3, which will coount as a dc, and make 11 more dc into the ring.  

 

you need to leave a long yarn tail, about 4-5 inches, for any method of beginning.  that way you can sew the tail in securely and close up the initial hole in the center that results with most starting methods.  

[Granny Square]

I agree with the above.  You can put a lot of stitches into 1 (example, a shell stitch), but I think the most I've done is a 9-stitch shell and thought that was a about the limit.  

 

To elaborate on making stitches into a ring as described above, you don't insert your hook into a stitch but into the hole in the middle of a ring.  You can cram a bunch of stitches into a 4-chain ring.