Hexagon Cardigan

Rnd 1: Mary Beth begins with a magic ring, but notes that you can start with a ch-4, slip stitch to the 4th ch from hook if we prefer. She begins with a ch-3 which counts as the first DC of the round. Then sh makes 2 more DC, and then chains 2. So far, we have a 3-DC group (shell) and one ch-2 space. She then works 5 more repeats of this sequence: [3 DC, ch 2]. Now there are a total of 6 groups of 3 DC and 6 ch-2 spaces. These ch-2 spaces will become the corners.

Rnd 2: Mary Beth joins at the end of the round, and then slip stitches over to the next ch-2 space. Here she begins the next round. For this first corner she makes a ch-3 (counts as the 1st DC of rnd), then 2 more DC in same ch-2 sp. Then she makes 2 chains and 3 more DC into the same ch-2 space. After this, she makes [3 DC, ch 2, 3 DC] into each of the next 5 ch-2 spaces, and ends with a slip stitch join to the top of the ch-3.

Mary Beth mentions that as this hexagon grows in size, it will not want to lay flat- it will start to “ruffle” a bit. She assures us that this is normal for this kind of project- this is what creates the shape of the arms and body.

Rnd 3: On the next round we start in the same way. We slip stitch to the next ch-2 space, then (ch-3, 2 DC, ch 2, 2 DC) into that same ch-sp because it is a corner. *Then we work 3 DC into the gap between the next 2 sets of 3 DC (shells). We do not make a ch-2 OR the second set of 3 DC here because this is not a corner space. (Remember the corners are the ch-2 spaces!). Next, we work a (3 DC, ch-2, 3 DC) into the next ch-2 space at the corner. Repeat from * around ending with 3 DC between DC groups, and a slip stitch to the top of the ch-3.

Mary Beth explains that each successive round is worked in the same way: (3 DC, ch 2, 3 DC) in each of the ch-2 corners, and 3 DC between each of the 3-DC shells along each side of the hexagon.