Expert: Ed Matos - 2/10/2010

Question
The baby hat pattern starts:  
With F hook, ch 2, 8 sc in 2nd st from hook, join in 1st sc, turn.
2nd Round: Ch 3, dc in same space, 2 dc in each sc all around, join, ch 1, turn -- 16 dc.
3rd Round: * 1 sc in next dc, 2 sc in next dc, repeat from * all around, join -- 24 sc.
NEXT 5 Rounds: Alternating rounds work 1 round in dc, 1 round in sc, inc 1 st in each of the 8 inc points having 1 more st between incs in each round, join, do not turn -- 64 sts.

I'm doing fine until the "Next 5 rounds" part.  I'm not sure what the "8 increase points" are. Everything I try just seems to be a little bit off.  After this point it goes into puff stitches, which aren't really a problem, but I just can't wrap my head around the "next 5 rounds" line.  Can you help?

Answer
Misty:

Thanks for the question.

What round 5 is stating is. You have 8 section, on each of those section you will do an increase, similar to how you did it in round 3. So as you progress on that row, let it be a sc or dc, you will do 2 sc or 2 dc on one of the stitches on each section.

Look at the piece, it probably looks like a hexagon (8 sections), at each hex section you will do one increase (so one stitch will get two instead of one), this does a even increase in the piece. at the end it should tell you how many stitches you should have.

you can do the increase in the middle of the hex section, at the beginning or at the end, since the pattern does not state where.

Hope this was helpful. Should you need any assistance, please let me know.

Happy Hooking

Ed