Squares in the Round

Cubes are good. Amigurumi cubes are even better! When I started my first solo Ami I decided I wanted to make a cube elephant (cubephant). I started working up a square in the round in the normal way (3sc in 1 on the corners). But I quickly came across something I didn't like the look of. The corner stripes...

The 3sc in 1 also leaves quite a big hole, and no-one wants to see the stuffing in their Ami. You can see this best if you hold the crochet up to the window.

So I decided to see if I could figure out a way to make a square shape without the big holes and the increase stripes. The way you do this in a circular round is to stagger the increases, then you are never increasing on an increase. This avoids any increase stripes, and also helps the circle stay less angular.

After lots of scribbling out stitch plans and many frogged attempts I managed to get it figured out the way I wanted. Victory!

Because the increases are only 2sc in 1, and alternate location each round, you get a nice even fabric with no stripes. The only downside to this is your square will not be as angular - especially at lower round counts. It's a trade off, angles for stripes and gaps. Here is the second piece held up to the window for comparison.

There are still holes, but they are smaller and irregular. Exactly what I was going for. One last picture of the two pieces side by side and then I will leave the pattern for anyone that wants to have a go.

Pattern

sc= single crochet

inc = increase (2sc in 1 stitch)

1. magic circle 8sc {8 stitches}
2. inc(sc) in all stitches {16 stitches}
3. [2inc, 2sc] repeat 4 times {24 stitches}
4. [4sc, 2inc] repeat 4 times {32 stitches}
5. [sc, 2inc, 5sc] repeat 4 times {40 stitches}
6. [inc, 4sc] repeat 8 times {48 stitches}
7. [3sc, 2inc, 7sc] repeat 4 times {56 stitches}
8. [2sc, inc, 4sc, inc, 6sc] repeat 4 times {64 stitches}

Repeat rows 7 and 8 adding 2sc to the beginning and end of the previous row of the same stitch pattern - e.g. row 9 will be [5sc, 2inc, 9sc] and row 10 will be [4sc, inc, 4sc, inc, 8sc]