What am I doing wrong?

[thespiderinyourbath]

Hello, very much a beginner. Thrown myself into the deep end though trying to make this lovely cat. I'm trying to do the head but it's ending up very hexagonal?? What am I doing wrong please! Fairly sure I'm misunderstanding the instructions...

[magiccrochetfan]

Hi, welcome to the Ville!

you have too many stitches in each round.  At the end of round one where it says (4 stitches) that is telling you the number of stitches you should have in that round.  It does not mean to make four more stitches.  So at the end of each round count your stitches to be sure you have the number it says in the parentheses.  

You should put a marker in the last stitch of a round so you can tell where the old round ends and next round begins.  

If this is in a book, be sure you have read everything at the front and back of the book where you will often find helpful directions and explanations.  

 

[thespiderinyourbath]

Hi and thank you.

I know that's saying how many stitches there should be, I'm not adding those stitches

An example of what I'm doing...

(3 dc, dc2inc) 6 times (30 sts)

I've gone into the first 3 stitches and double crocheted. Then on the 4th stitch, double crocheted 3 times. Then into the 5th stitch, 6th and 7th with a double crochet stitch, then on the 8th, double crocheted 3 times....etc until I've gone into all 24 stitches from the previous round.

I hope that makes sense!

Thanks again for your help.

[Bailey4]

I have to remember the difference in terms from American and British and since it's early I'm going to use generic stitch so I don't confuse the translation.

 

What this direction means is in the next 3 stitches dc

An increase means 2 stitches in the next stitch 

To explain your example stitch (1) dc in stitch 5,6,7

Stitch 8 would increase so it gets 2 dc

 

The pattern starts with 6 stitches

You put 2 stitches into each stitch to get to 12 total

You should be marking first stitch so you can count total stitches some use yarn, I use a safety pin

Round 3 1 dc in first stitch then increase means 2 in next stitch, so it would be 1 dc then 2 in next stitch.  Continue this pattern until you reach stitch marker count you should have 18 stitches. If not check your stitches you've made a mistake. You aren't counting stitches from previous row. When it says (18) it means from the first stitch in the row until the last there should be 18 stitches no more no less. If your count doesn't match you've made a mistake in that row. Honestly this is the best way to know if you have the directions right for an ami. It can be easy to put an extra stitch in before an increase or decrease or do the increases early. However it always shows up when you count your stitches.

If you look at you own example the pattern days 3dc with an increase 6 times for a total of 30 stitches for for the round. The math makes sense. 3+2=5 stitches 5x6 rounds = 30 stitches.

Now your math 3 +3 =6 stitches 6 x 6 rounds = 36 stitches if you count the row you know you have to many stitches because pattern tells you at end of round you should only have 30.

The language is slightly different than what I am used to reading as I said British to American terms but the increases are standard for making amigurumis. Once you've made a few there are a few alterations people make for shaping and size and preferences for stitching or increasing first but even when written differently as this one is you can figure out how to get to the required number of stitches.

[Granny Square]

Excellent advice above.

To answer your question about the hexagon...while instructions for making a flat circle will seldom tell you this, when you make increases in the same spot on every round (one over the top of the other), it will end up being an angled shape with points at the increase spots.  What helps to round the circle is after the first few rows, stagger the increases.  Example, if the next row instructions say 'dc 6, increase in the next stitch, repeat', dc 3, increase, then dc 6, increase until the end, when you will make up the 3 plain stitches you 'skipped' earlier.  Then in the next row, follow the directions; the row after that, stagger them again, an so on.

[magiccrochetfan]

I'm sorry, I thought you were working on the ear part because there is a red line around that section, I thought you had circled that.  

 

[magiccrochetfan]

10 hours ago, thespiderinyourbath said:

An example of what I'm doing...

(3 dc, dc2inc) 6 times (30 sts)

I've gone into the first 3 stitches and double crocheted. Then on the 4th stitch, double crocheted 3 times. Then into the 5th stitch, 6th and 7th with a double crochet stitch, then on the 8th, double crocheted 3 times...

Are you certain that the increase is supposed to be 3 sts into 1 st?  As Bailey said, the most typical increase for this kind of pattern is to make 2 sts into the stitch.  There should be an explanation of the abbreviation "dc2inc" somewhere in the pattern or in a glossary somewhere in the book.