QuestionShapingBy The Hook Desk1 Sep 2026

Why has my flat circle turned into a hexagon?

Q: Why has my flat circle turned into a hexagon?

Because every increase is landing in the same column, so the disc grows along six straight spokes instead of around a curve. Fix it by staggering the increases — shift each round's increases one or two stitches to the right so no two rounds stack them in the same place.

This is not a tension problem and not a hook problem. It is a placement problem, and it is visible from about round five onward, which is exactly when most people have too much work in to want to undo it.

Round-by-round schematic Every inch mark here is an increase round in the same spoke — the shape that produces six corners.

Step by step

R6 · 36 stsWhy the six corners appear

Round 3 is '1 sc, inc' repeated six times. Round 4 is '2 sc, inc'. If you follow that literally, the increase in round 4 sits two stitches past the previous one and lands in the same spoke as round 3's increase, one stitch out. Repeat and you have drawn six straight rays.

In a real curve, the extra stitch you add in round 4 should be roughly one and a half stitches further out than the one in round 3, not exactly two. The half-stitch error is what accumulates into a corner.

Note 2The staggered increase fix

Split the round into two halves and put the increase for each half at a different offset. Round 4 becomes: inc, 2 sc, (inc, 2 sc) five times, then 1 sc. The increases are still six, still evenly spaced, but they no longer line up with round 3's.

For a disc destined to be a hat crown or a coaster, that alone removes the corners. For amigurumi spheres, the same trick matters more, because a hexagon in a sphere turns into a visible ridge once the piece is stuffed.

Note 3If the corner is already there

You can block it flat: pin the disc out on a mat, mist it, leave it overnight. Acrylic will hold for a while and relax back after a wash. Cotton holds better. Wool holds best, but only if you wet-block rather than mist.

If the piece is stuffed, blocking will not help — the corners are structural. Undo back past round 4, stagger, and rework. Losing four rounds is quicker than trying to hide a ridge under a sewn-on panel.

Where it usually goes wrong

Assuming the pattern is wrong. Most printed circles use unstaggered increases as a convention, not as an error.
Staggering only some rounds, which just moves the corners to a different angle.
Trying to steam acrylic into flatness. Acrylic needs heat you cannot apply with a steam iron without killing the fibre.

Why has my flat circle turned into a hexagon?

Step by step

Where it usually goes wrong

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