How to Crochet a Circle with a Magic Ring

Photo of a hand holding strands of pink yarn in a loop around two fingers. A white background with scissors and a yarn bowl. Text on the image reads: Banana Moon Studio. How to crochet a circle with a magic ring.

If you’ve learned to crochet fairly recently, and have gotten pretty comfortable make squares and rectangles, you may be wondering how to crochet a circle. Let’s explain that process and show you my favorite way to start a circle or center-out square.

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How do you crochet a simple magic circle?

When learning how to crochet a circle you have to learn how to start in the center. There is actually more than one way to start in the center. It is usually best to follow the pattern you are using, but as long as your circle has a closed center, not a big open hole, you can use the following method, my personal favorite, an adjustable ring, also known as a magic ring or magic circle.

You begin by taking your yarn end in your left hand and laying it across the first two fingers of your right hand so that you have 8 inches or so between the end and your two fingers. The end of the yarn should be facing you.

Wrap the yarn around your fingers by taking the end under your right hand and back, and then bringing it up and forward across your fingers again. Sound confusing? No worries, there is a video below to show it to you.

Once you have the yarn wrapped in a complete circle around those two fingers, you grab the two strands laying across the top of your two fingers with your left index finger and thumb and pull it off your right fingers.

Place your hook through the circle, yarn over with the yarn going back to your ball or skein, and pull that through the circle. If your circle will be in single crochet (sc) chain 1 at this point. If your circle will be in double crochet (dc) then you will chain 2 at this point.

Double check here that your tail is around 4 to 6 inches long. If it’s not, try again and make your tail longer. This is important so that your circle doesn’t come undone in the center later. I tend towards even a 6 or 8 inch tail. The longer your tail, the more secure your circle.

Adding crochet stitches to the magic ring

The next step in crocheting a circle is working your stitches into the big open ring working over BOTH strands of yarn. For a single crochet circle, work 6 stitches into the ring. For a double crochet circle, work 12 stitches into the ring.

Once you’ve worked your stitches, you will tighten the center of your circle by pulling your tail. It will work like a drawstring and close the center hole. Then when you weave in your end, your center will be secure.

A note about certain yarns and pulling that tail.

Before you crochet your first circle with a magic ring, I suggest doing a little test of yarn strength.

Take the end of one ball or skein of yarn. Hold it between your two hands with about 6 inches of yarn between your hands. Pull on the yarn with both hands. Don’t be afraid to pull hard. This is just a test, and it’s only a few inches of yarn wasted if it breaks.

If your yarn pulls apart easily, then pulling that tail to close the center of your circle may cause your yarn to break off short and close to the center of your circle. That’s a problem because now you don’t have an end to weave in to secure the center of your circle.

But all is not lost! If your yarn is weak, then you can temporarily strengthen it before closing the center of your circle. Take a close look at your yarn. Which direction is it twisted? Twist in yarn adds strength. So if your yarn is weak, add some extra twist with your fingers before you pull the tail to tighten the center of your magic ring. Once you’ve added enough twist that it wants to curl up on itself, pull your tail to close your ring.

Continuing your crochet circle

Now that you’ve finished the first round of stitches, and closed your center, you need to join the end of round 1. Place your hook in the top of the first stitch you made in the magic ring. If that’s hard to find, you might count stitch tops backwards to find it. Once you’ve placed the hook in the first stitch, yarn over, and pull that loop through the stitch and through the loop on your hook. That is called a slip stitch (sl st).

Now you’ll make another chain, 1 chain (ch) for single crochet, 2 chains (chs) for double crochet. In this round you’ll place two stitches into each stitch below so that your stitch count doubles. In single crochet your first round has 6 stitches (sts) and your second round (rnd) has 12. In double crochet your first round as 12 stitches and your second round as 24.

Each round after that will increase by the same number of stitches in your first round. So a single crochet circle increase by 6 each round and a double crochet circle increases by 12 each round.

Pattern instructions for a 5 round circle

In this simple pattern I’m going to write in standard pattern format. This uses a lot of abbreviations. If you aren’t familiar with crochet abbreviations, check out my free, printable crochet abbreviations list here.

Check out this post for help with basic crochet stitches.

You can use any yarn for this pattern. I suggest checking the yarn label or the bottom row of this chart for a hook size suggestion.

How to crochet a single crochet circle

Begin by making a magic ring.

Rnd 1: Ch 1, work 6 sc in the ring, pull tail to close center, join to first st with sl st – 6 sc.

Rnd 2: Ch 1, 2 sc in each st around, join to first st with sl st – 12 sc.

Rnd 3: Ch 1, *sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, repeat from * around – 18 sc.

Rnd 4: Ch 1, *sc in next 2 sts, 2 sc in next st, repeat from * around – 24 sc.

Rnd 5: Ch 1, *sc in next 3 sts, 2 sc in next st, repeat from * around – 30 sc.

Do you see how the number of sts you work into singly increases with each row? That’s the key. If you want to keep going, increase that number by 1 in each round. Or, if you are satisfied with the size of your circle, go ahead and fasten off.

How to crochet a double crochet circle

Begin by making a magic ring.

Rnd 1: Ch 1, work 12 sc in the ring, pull tail to close center, join to first st with sl st – 12 dc.

Rnd 2: Ch 1, 2 dc in each st around, join to first st with sl st – 24 dc.

Rnd 3: Ch 1, *dc in next st, 2 dc in next st, repeat from * around – 36 dc.

Rnd 4: Ch 1, *dc in next 2 sts, 2 dc in next st, repeat from * around – 48 dc.

Rnd 5: Ch 1, *dc in next 3 sts, 2 dc in next st, repeat from * around – 60 dc.

If you want to keep going, continue increasing by 12 in each round. Or, if you are satisfied with the size of your circle, go ahead and fasten off.

If you will be changing colors between rounds as you crochet this circle, be sure to check out my video tutorial demonstrating the color change.

How to crochet a circle with a magic ring video

Watch the video below to see how to crochet a circle with a magic ring. You might notice that in this video I referred to this technique as an adjustable ring. This is just an old school name for the magic ring. Same technique.

Photo of a hand holding strands of pink yarn in a loop around two fingers. A white background with scissors and a yarn bowl. A white banner on the image has text that reads: Crochet circles with a magic ring. Banana Moon Studio. A red and white play button is centered over the image. — Click to watch it on YouTube

And that is everything you need to know how to crochet a circle. I’d love to see your circles, or what you’ve done with them! You can share your photos on Instagram and tag me, or you can join my Facebook group and share them there. I’ll see them in either place.