I decided a few months ago to crochet a hexagon blanket for my friend’s wedding. I’d never crocheted a hexagon before, so I followed Make & Do Crew’s tutorial. (It’s a great tutorial, by the way—clear and easy to follow. If you’re new to hexagons, start there.)
But I didn’t like how tight and dense my crochet was when I used the hook size recommended on the yarn label. I was using Loops & Threads Impeccable yarn from Michaels; it recommended a size H hook. I liked the feel of the crochet fabric better with a J hook. (I don’t know if I crochet tighter than average, or if I just prefer my crochet much much looser. Probably the latter.)
The problem that comes with using a bigger hook is that your stitches are too big to fit nicely in a round, so your hexagon gets wavy and won’t lay flat:
I searched online for troubleshooting tips, but I couldn’t find any, so I had to make it up myself. The only time my hexagons would lay flat was when I loosened the magic loop in the center—the hexagon was flat, but there was a gaping hole in the middle.
So I decided to try adding an extra round in the middle before starting the regular hexagon pattern.
This is what I did:
Abbreviations:
ch = chain
dc = double crochet
(I’m going to apologize now: I’ve never written out a crochet pattern before, so this may not be as clean and easy to follow as other patterns you’ll see. Comment with questions!)
Make a magic loop. (This is the video tutorial I followed to learn how.)
Ch 3, 5dc into magic loop, sl 1 into chain to close the round. Pull magic loop snug.
Ch 2, dc 1 into same stitch that you slip-stitched into at the end of the last round (the stitch your chains are coming out of), ch 2, *2dc into next st, ch 2, repeat from * 4 more times. (You should have 12 dc in this round.) Sl 1 into the beginning chains to close the round.
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| Dc 1 into the same stitch you slip stitched into at the end of the last round, the same stitch that your chains are coming out of to start this round. |
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| You should have 12 dc in this round, or rather, 11 dc plus the 2 chains that started the round. |
This last round is the equivalent of the first round in the Make & Do Crew tutorial. You can now follow their tutorial for the rest of the hexagon, starting with round 2.
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| This is round 2 from the Make & Do Crew tutorial, which ends up being round 3 in this modified hexagon. |
I did a total of 6 rounds (the 2 I wrote out above plus 4 more), and the hexagons stayed flat!
Have you found other solutions for wavy crochet? I’d love to hear about them! And check out the finished blanket here!
