Crochet Basics - How to Work in the Round (Dec)

If you've just found this post I suggest you visit the previous posts to catch up: how to make a slip knot and chain, how to make a single crochet, and how to work in the round. We've entered the decrease phase! Now that you've got a rounded shape you'll want to continue shaping it by decreasing some stitches. A decrease is basically joining two stitches together to make one stitch. And just like when you made increases, the decreases are also evenly spaced apart. 

To start a decrease insert the hook into the indicated stitch, wrap yarn over hook and pull through (looks like the beginning of a single crochet stitch but...), insert the hook into the nextstitch, wrap yarn over hook and pull through, now you have 3 loops on the hook. Wrap yarn over hook and pull through all loops. That's a decrease:

Because we are continuing to make a pumpkin shape we'll need to add a few stitches in between the decreases (dec), as I mentioned they need to be evenly spaced. The combination of stitches and increases to be repeated are between brackets. The pattern looks like this (remember in the previous post we left off at Round 6 with a total of 36 stitches):

Round 7: [sc in next 4 stitches, dec] repeat 6 times  (30 sts)

Round 8: [sc in next 3 stitches, dec] repeat 6 times (24 sts)

Round 9: [sc in next 2 stitches, dec] repeat 6 times (18 sts)

Round 10: [sc in next stitch, dec] repeat 6 times (12 sts)

Round 11: dec 6 times (6 sts)

In this photo below I've made 4 single crochet stitches:

Then started a decrease:

And now I'm ready to repeat that segment (sc in next 4 sts, dec) all the way around until I have 30 sts at the end of the round:

Continue to make decreases and you'll start to see the pumpkin taking shape:

Something people ask me is when to begin stuffing the project at hand. It really depends on the size of the item but in this case because it's small, I've decreased until there are 12 stitches and there is a hole big enough to fit stuffing:

I like to leave a bit of space at the top so I have room to continue decreasing and I add more stuffing just as I finish off. In this photo I'm decreasing 6 times so I'm left with 6 stitches.

That little gap that's left can be closed by threading the tail into a yarn needle and sewing it shut:

And there you have a round pumpkin shape! Looking to add detail to your pumpkin? Check out this post here!

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Jack-o-Lantern Crochet Pattern

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Crochet Basics - How to Work in the Round (Inc)