Andrea

[Roxy Hart]

I am crocheting a hat. Round 3 left me with 36 dc. Round 4 says "ch2, *2dc, dc2* around for 48 stitches. Not sure what that means.

[Granny Square]

Hi, welcome to the 'ville!  Well that's not very clear at all, is it?

Roxy Hart, in spite of your 'Chicago' name, are you following a UK pattern?  I am assuming yes, so I'll use UK terms.  In UK stitch terms, US SC = UK DC.

Hats in crochet (typically) start at the crown with a flat circle, often in UK DC, until you reach a certain diameter (which, multiplied by 3.14, is the circumference you are trying to attain).

The recipe for a flat circle is (I'm just going to say sts, but I mean UK DC) :

rnd 1 = 6 sts into a center circle (total=6)

rnd 2 = 2 sts into each st, (total=12)

rnd 3  = *1 st into the first st, 2 st into the next, repeat around (total=18)

rnd 3 = *1 st into the first 2 sts, 2 st into the next, repeat around (total=24)

rnd 3 = *1 st into the first 3 sts, 2 st into the next, repeat around (total=36)

Notice the pattern forming, you are adding 1 more 'plain' stitch between the increases, and each round adds 6 to the prior one.

This pattern violated a 'pattern grammar rule' with " "ch2, *2dc, dc2*".  Normally dc 2 and 2dc mean the same thing, and would/should never be used next to each other without further clarification for one of the terms.  Normally they both mean 'make 1 dc in each of the next 2 stitches'. 

However, in this case, ONE of them means that, and the OTHER means '2 dc into the next stitch' (an increase).  When you are increasing evenly around like this, it  doesn't much matter whether you start the round with the increase and then follow that by the 'plain stitches', or start with the plain stitches and then increase as I chose to (I think this way is more common, but whichever way, just be consistent).

Edited January 27, 2022 by Granny Square