When making a hat, my preferred stitch is the half double crochet; the only problem with working hdc in the round is the running or diagonal seam that is created when rounds are joined. I’ve been playing around with stitch placement on the last few hats I’ve made and I think the resulting seam is much neater looking.
*NOTE* – The method described below will only work if the starting chain of each round does not count as a stitch.
There are two steps to getting a straighter seam on a crochet HDC hat. The first step comes when working the increase rounds; most patterns are written in this format:
{make 2 hdc in first stitch, hdc in next stitch} repeat around
Since the HDC naturally slants to the right, working increases at the beginning of the set is going to accentuate the slant, so you will want to reverse the instructions, placing the increase at the end of the set like this:
{hdc in first stitch, make 2 hdc in next stitch} repeat around
This means you will always end the round with an increase and it will push the starting stitch a little to the left, making the seam straighter.
The next step comes after the last increase round is finished and you are about to start working the body of the hat. This entails working a 2-round repeat of a decrease/increase round that makes the seam slant to the left, and a regular round that makes the seam slant to the right. Repeating these rounds will result in a straighter seam like the one on the purple hat pictured above.
Here are the 2 rounds to alternate:
Round 1: Ch 1, skip the first stitch (the stitch you joined in; decrease made), hdc in the next stitch and in each stitch around until 1 stitch remains, make 2 hdc in the last stitch, join in the first hdc of the round
Round 2: Ch 1, hdc in the first stitch and in each stitch around, join in the first hdc
Repeat those two rounds until your hat reaches the desired length and fasten off. That’s it!
This technique is not limited to HDC hats; use it for any project made with HDC in the round.
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