Crochet Tutorial: Magic Circles

It’s been a little longer than I wanted since my last post.  Mostly I’ve been lazy about it, but partly too busy, too.  Also, I was waiting for Dear Husband of Mine to help me with photos for the crochet tutorial I promised.  That didn’t happen, and I’m tired of waiting for time for him to do it, so I took my own photos.  I’m not promising glorious, professional quality photos for this tutorial, since they were taken with my phone.  I have no idea how to work Ryan’s camera, and when I try, I take worse pictures than I could with my phone anyways.

In my last post, I mentioned how I needed to learn to make a Magic Circle for a crochet project I was starting, and since I’m absolutely green when it comes to crochet, I had no idea what any of the tutorials I found online were talking about.  Today, I’m writing my own tutorial for Magic Circles that will include a few vital pieces of information that all the others skipped over.  For us newbies, that’s cruel.  My tutorial will have plenty of pictures, and detailed instructions.  It may seem tedious, but if you got here because you were searching for this information, it will be worth it to read through the whole thing, and follow along!

With all that out of the way, on to the real topic:  Magic Circles, For Newbs!

A Magic Circle is a circle of stitches pulled together so they leave no hole.  It’s great for socks, hats, and anything else you want closed at one end.  To make one, you need to wrap your single crochet stitches around a loop.  Here’s how!

 

Step One:  Make a loop around a few of your fingers, as in this photo.  Your tail should be in front, and the working end in back.  Keep a tail a few inches long, depending on how many stitches you need to start your pattern. 

 Step Two:  Pull your working end through with your hook.  Your hook goes in the front of your original loop, pulling your yarn from the back to the front.

Tighten the working end around the hook, but leave the original loop loose. 

Step Three:  Make one chain.  As in, pull your working end through the loop you just made.

Step Four:  Make your first single crochet around both the tail and working end of the yarn by inserting your hook from the front, under both threads, and pulling the working end through to the front.  Complete the stitch as usual.

To the left is the loop for the single crochet stitch (yellow), under both the tail and working threads (blue).

On the right is my finished stitch.

Step Five:  Continue with your single crochet stitches around the loop for as many as you need.

Step Six:  When you’ve finished, make sure all your stitches are facing outside the loop.  If they’re not, just shuffle them so they are, otherwise your Magic Circle won’t be so magical, and you will have to start over.  

  

Step Seven: Now, pull the tail end so the loop tightens.  And look!  You’ve got a Magic Circle!  All you need to do now is join the end to the first single crochet stitch of your circle, and begin your pattern!

If there is any part of this that confuses you, or if I’ve assumed you know something that you don’t, please tell me.  I want this tutorial to be a great resource for beginner crochet-ers!  Hopefully I can update the pictures later on, so also let me know which ones could be clearer.

I hope this helps, and happy crafting!