Pattern breakdown

[Unremittingly]

I’m a beginner struggling to decipher this pattern. If someone can break down the first couple lines for me, I think I can figure out the rest. I tried following it but my results look way different from the photo provided with the pattern. 

I know how to make the magic ring, so I just need a break down of line 1 and 2. It seems so simple, but I’m obviously messing something up.

It’s supposed to be a witch hat, btw. 
Thank you so much!

[bgs]

So you make the magic ring and then make 6 sc in the magic ring.  Assuming you are working continuous round so you need to put a stitch marker in first stitch and move it to first stitch of each round to keep track of your rounds.

1) you sc in each of the 6 sc you made in the magic ring ---6 sc made

2) 2 sc in first sc of previous round, sc in next sc of previous round, 2sc in third sc of previous round, sc in next sc of previous round, 2sc in 5th sc of previous round, sc in last sc of previous round---9 sc made

Inc means make 2 stitches into one stitch on previous round

The number in(  ) at end of round is the total number of stitches made in that round

You are making a cone and are at the smaller/pointy end

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by bgs

[Granny Square]

Exactly what she said.  Every word or abbreviation is in conventional crochet pattern terms except MR.  "Magic ring" or "adjustable ring" are ways to start a center-out circle.  In your case, since you are starting with only 6 SC stitches, an alternate and easier way to start this would be to chain 2, and make 6 sc into the 2nd chain from the hook - yes, they will all fit. 

A well written pattern should have a special stitches section, usually right before the pattern starts or sometimes in books or magazines at the end of the pattern, and "MR" should have been defined. 

Throwing this out because there is a wealth of info here for a beginner - see menu at the right, US industry standards for yarn sizing, how to read a crochet pattern (abbreviations, symbols and such), and more. https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards

[CLATINDANCER@AOL.COM]

you will be increasing a single crochet every other stitch.  Just as she broke it down for you.  At the end of row 2 you will have 9 single crochet.  Next row you just single crochet all around. The following row you start increasing again.  Hope this helps.

[Unremittingly]

On 10/17/2020 at 11:51 PM, bgs said:

So you make the magic ring and then make 6 sc in the magic ring.  Assuming you are working continuous round so you need to put a stitch marker in first stitch and move it to first stitch of each round to keep track of your rounds.

1) you sc in each of the 6 sc you made in the magic ring ---6 sc made

2) 2 sc in first sc of previous round, sc in next sc of previous round, 2sc in third sc of previous round, sc in next sc of previous round, 2sc in 5th sc of previous round, sc in last sc of previous round---9 sc made

Inc means make 2 stitches into one stitch on previous round

The number in(  ) at end of round is the total number of stitches made in that round

You are making a cone and are at the smaller/pointy end

 

Thank you so much for explaining this! It helped me finish the “cone” part perfectly. Now I’m at the crown part of the hat and I’m doing something wrong again. I have been keeping up with how many stitches and where the rows begin, but it’s curving in the wrong direction. Here’s a pic of what it looks like and what it’s supposed to look like. Any idea what I may be doing wrong? This is the pattern for it and the part where it has “(sc, inc)*repeat over the next # stitches” is the bulging area on my piece.

[bgs]

 

1 hour ago, Unremittingly said:

Thank you so much for explaining this! It helped me finish the “cone” part perfectly. Now I’m at the crown part of the hat and I’m doing something wrong again. I have been keeping up with how many stitches and where the rows begin, but it’s curving in the wrong direction. Here’s a pic of what it looks like and what it’s supposed to look like. Any idea what I may be doing wrong? This is the pattern for it and the part where it has “(sc, inc)*repeat over the next # stitches” is the bulging area on my piece.

  Not sure if you did anything wrong.  When you open up the cone and the brim distributes around the cone does it look anything like photo of finished hat.  What does it look like if you fold it another way-----try folding it so that the fold is about where the yarn ends show up in your photo.  One side definitely has you increasing quite a bit for the area which causes ruffling.  Sometimes you have to shape things by gently pulling/pushing your work around a bit.

Edited October 22, 2020 by bgs

[Granny Square]

I think I can see why it was designed this way.  One might think of the sort you can buy which is  _/\_ in profile, but  those have a wire around the brim to keep the flared brim in place.  You could make one like that in crochet but I think the yarn might be too heavy to wire, plus if this is for a kid a wire wouldn't be particularly safe.  Plus, this would fold up around the face so there's no visibility impairment if wandering around in the dark, but it will still look witchy.

[Unremittingly]

2 hours ago, Granny Square said:

I think I can see why it was designed this way.  One might think of the sort you can buy which is  _/\_ in profile, but  those have a wire around the brim to keep the flared brim in place.  You could make one like that in crochet but I think the yarn might be too heavy to wire, plus if this is for a kid a wire wouldn't be particularly safe.  Plus, this would fold up around the face so there's no visibility impairment if wandering around in the dark, but it will still look witchy.

It’s not a traditional witch hat, it’s like this and I used two strands so it’s more rigid.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Unremittingly

[bgs]

Granny Square would we see more ruffling due to more bulk because of using two strands if pattern was written using a single strand?

[Granny Square]

Well, that's an interesting question.  Presumably one stitch with 2 strands would be taller and wider than a 1 strand, but is the ratio the same?    If one is trying to yank stitches tighter for a stiff brim, you could get cupping, too. 

As with all things in the round, I'd guess it comes down to your stitch tension versus the designers' - if the designer's witch's hat brim, or doily, lies flat following that pattern, it doesn't mean yours will...been there, done that, if they gave out T-shirts for having to make adjustments in the round I could open a store...  

[Unremittingly]

19 hours ago, bgs said:

Granny Square would we see more ruffling due to more bulk because of using two strands if pattern was written using a single strand?

The pattern calls for two strands to be used for the entire hat.

I think I may have started messing up around step 24. After I finished what that step called for, I had four stitches left to fill in the row. I kept going after trying to fix it and when I reached step 26 I had 7 stitches left in the row! I thought I had followed the pattern correctly and even went back to step 25 to make sure that I was making 1 single crochet in each stitch but there were still too many. 

If you’re wondering how I “fixed it”, I back tracked a bit and used decreases to skip four stitches along the row instead of having four empty ones at the end. I know I probably shouldn’t have, but it fixed the issue at the time. It didn’t look too funky, because of using two strands of yarn the holes aren’t too big. 😅

Can you break down step 24 for me just to make sure I’m doing it right? I thought I had it, because step 22 was correct and I had (44) stitches just like it said I would. 
 

I read more about how to read crochet patterns, I promise! I don’t know why I’m struggling so much and I really do appreciate everything everyone has suggested so far. Thank you again!

Edited October 23, 2020 by Unremittingly

[Granny Square]

Pasted it here so I didn't have to scroll back and forth.  So, you started with 44 stitches prior to this row, and this row adds 10.  

One thing that always gives me pause is *something, repeat over the next x stitches.  Most often that means you do do it once, then x more times, but looking ahead and doing a little math, the first sentence means increase every other stitch, over a total of 14 sts, therefore an increase of 7. 

44 starting stitches, minus 14 used so far, leaves 30 for the second part of that step.

Rest of row uses (7+1)+(7+1)+(7+1)+6, which is 30 stitches used, plus 3 increases.

So you start with 44, and add 7+3=10 increases, to end with 54.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Granny Square

[Unremittingly]

3 minutes ago, Granny Square said:

Pasted it here so I didn't have to scroll back and forth.  So, you started with 44 stitches prior to this row, and this row adds 10.  

One thing that always gives me pause is *something, repeat over the next x stitches.  Most often that means you do do it once, then x more times, but looking ahead and doing a little math, the first sentence means increase every other stitch, over a total of 14, therefore an increase of 7. 

44 starting stitches, minus 14 used so far, leaves 30 for the second part of that step.

Rest of row uses (7+1)+(7+1)+(7+1)+6, which is 30 stitches used, plus 3 increases.

So you start with 44, and add 7+3=10 increases, to end with 54.

 

This helps soooo much!! Thank you. Seeing the numbers/math written out like that helps me understand it so much better. I’m going to get back to work now. 😁 

I think I was adding too many stitches when I increased, so that’s why I had extra stitches at the end of my rows. 

I also thought that as well about doing it once and then repeating it x amount of times, but noticed it didn’t add up right.