How to Increase in Crochet: Shape Your Fabric With Confidence

Increasing is the technique that gives crochet its shape. Without it, every project would be a flat rectangle the same width as its foundation chain. With it, you can make circles, cones, curves, spheres, and every rounded, flared, or three-dimensional form in crochet. An increase is beautifully simple — you just add stitches where the fabric needs to grow wider — but knowing how many to add and exactly where to place them is what separates a flat, professional circle from a ruffled or cupped mess. This guide covers how to increase in every common stitch, where to place increases, and how to read and troubleshoot the shaping in any pattern.

What Is an Increase?

An increase adds one or more stitches to your work, making that row or round wider than the one before. The standard increase is to work two stitches into the same stitch — where there was one stitch, now there are two, so your total count goes up by one. Patterns abbreviate this as 'inc' or write it out as '2 sc in next st.' You can increase in any stitch: two single crochets, two double crochets, and so on. The concept never changes — extra stitches in one spot make the fabric grow.

Why Increasing Matters

Increasing matters because shape is what makes crochet useful and beautiful. A hat needs to widen from its crown; a circular rug needs to grow evenly outward; a cone-shaped ice cream amigurumi needs controlled, gradual widening; a top needs to flare over the hips. All of this is increasing. It works hand in hand with decreasing, its mirror image, and with the magic ring that starts most increased rounds. Together these shaping techniques turn flat fabric into objects.

When to Use Increases

Use increases whenever a project needs to get wider. In the round, increases create flat circles (for coasters, bag bases, and hat crowns) and gradual cones and spheres (for amigurumi). In rows, increases at the edges widen a piece — useful for triangular shawls, raglan garments, and shaped panels. They also create the corners of granny squares, where several stitches worked into one corner space make the square turn. Recognizing where a pattern places increases is a key part of reading the pattern accurately.

Materials You Will Need

Increasing requires no special materials — just your project yarn, hook, and a stitch marker. The stitch marker is genuinely important here: when working increases in a spiral round, a marker at the start of each round keeps your counts accurate so your increases land in the right places. A smooth, light yarn makes it easy to see where each stitch goes, which matters when you are placing two stitches into one. The same dependable worsted-and-5.0 mm-hook pairing from the crochet basics is ideal for practicing.

Step-by-Step: How to Increase

To make a basic single-stitch increase: Step one: work a normal stitch into the next stitch as usual. Step two: instead of moving on, insert your hook back into that same stitch. Step three: work a second complete stitch into it. You have now worked two stitches into one, adding one to your count. For an increase of two, work three stitches into the same stitch. In a flat circle, your pattern will tell you the rhythm — for example, round two might be '2 sc in each st' (an increase in every stitch), while round three might be '1 sc, 2 sc in next' repeated, spacing the increases out as the circle grows.

The Math of a Flat Circle

A flat crochet circle follows a simple rule: increase by the same total number of stitches every round, spaced evenly. For single crochet, that number is usually six — you start with six stitches in a magic ring, then add six every round (12, 18, 24, 30…). Taller stitches need more: half double crochet circles often add eight per round, and double crochet circles add twelve. As the circle grows, the increases spread further apart, but the total added each round stays constant. This even, steady increase is exactly what keeps the circle flat.

A Visual Way to Picture It

Imagine the spokes of a wheel. Each increase is a point where the fabric is allowed to fan out a little, like a spoke radiating from the hub. Space the spokes evenly and the wheel stays round and flat; bunch them up and the rim ripples; use too few and the rim pulls inward into a dome. Picturing increases as evenly spaced spokes makes it intuitive why even spacing matters so much for a smooth, flat result.

Common Increasing Mistakes

The most common mistakes are increasing too fast (causing ruffling), increasing too slowly (causing cupping), placing increases unevenly (causing a lumpy, polygonal circle instead of a round one), and losing the stitch count between rounds. Beginners also sometimes forget to move the stitch marker up each round, then lose track of where the round begins. Working the increase into the wrong stitch — off by one from where the pattern intends — gradually skews the shape, which is why counting each round matters.

Troubleshooting Your Increases

If your circle ruffles and waves, you are adding too many stitches — reduce the increases per round. If it cups into a bowl, add more increases per round. If the circle looks like a hexagon or octagon, your increases are stacking directly on top of each other; stagger them round to round so the increase points shift position. And if your count drifts, use a stitch marker at the start of every round and recount after each one. These shaping fixes echo the counting habits taught in our common crochet mistakes guide.

Expert Tips for Clean Increases

Stagger your increases from round to round rather than stacking them, which keeps circles smooth and round instead of angular. Use a stitch marker religiously when working in spirals. Count your stitches at the end of every round against the pattern's stated total — shaping errors are far easier to fix one round back than ten. For invisible increases in amigurumi, work the increase into the same stitch but through different loops to reduce the visible bump. And always practice a flat circle swatch before a shaped project, so your increase rhythm is reliable.

Project Examples Using Increases

Increases shape an enormous range of projects: circular coasters, placemats, and rugs; the crowns of hats; the rounded bodies of amigurumi; cone shapes like hats and trees; triangular and crescent shawls; and the corners of granny squares. Any project that is not a plain rectangle uses increasing somewhere. Because shaping is so central to three-dimensional work, increasing connects directly to the forms explored in our crochet shapes category and the projects in the beginner pattern hub.

Conclusion

Increasing is the technique that frees crochet from the flat rectangle and lets you make circles, cones, spheres, and curves. The move itself is simple — extra stitches in one spot — but the art is in how many you add and where. Increase evenly for flat circles, stagger your increase points for smooth shapes, and always keep your count. Once increasing feels natural, learn its mirror image, decreasing, and you will have full command of crochet shaping. Return to the techniques library any time to keep building.