How to Increase in Single Crochet.

The close-up isolates a completed increase in separate demonstration fabric. Use the count key for the full eight-to-nine-stitch exercise; the cropped image is not a photograph of that complete row.

For this practice exercise, make a foundation chain of nine chains. Work one single crochet into the second chain from the hook, then one into each remaining chain. You should have eight single crochet stitches.

The skipped chain does not count as a stitch in this exercise. The next row begins with one turning chain, which also does not count.

If you need help making that first row, follow the movements in the single crochet lesson. Mark the first and last stitch tops so that you can recognise the edges after turning.

Chain one and turn. Work one single crochet into each of the first three stitches. The fourth stitch is where you will increase.

1. Insert the hook under both top loops of the fourth stitch.
2. Yarn over and draw up a loop. Two working loops are now on the hook.
3. Yarn over and draw through both loops. You have made the first single crochet into that base stitch.
4. Insert the hook under the same two base loops again. Do not move to the next V.
5. Make another complete single crochet there.

There are now two new stitches sharing the fourth base stitch. Move on and work one single crochet into each of the remaining four base stitches.

The practice row is:

Ch 1, turn. Sc in each of the next 3 sts, 2 sc in the next st, sc in each of the next 4 sts. (9 sc)

You used three base stitches before the increase, one for the increase and four after it. That accounts for all eight stitches in the old row.

The new row has three ordinary stitches, two stitches at the increase and four more ordinary stitches: 3 + 2 + 4 = 9.

Look above the increased position. You should be able to identify two separate top Vs, even though they emerge from the same base. On a following plain row, each would normally receive its own stitch.

Two stitches into two neighbouring bases is not an increase. It uses two and produces two, so the total stays the same. Both new stitches must share the specified base for this particular increase.

This increase finishes each new stitch separately. Each single crochet here is completed, leaving one active loop before you begin the next. Closing partially made stitches together across different bases can make a decrease; closing them together in one base can make a cluster. Neither is the two-complete-stitches increase used here.

Do not add the turning chain to this count. If you get ten, check whether you counted it or worked into it at the far edge. If you get eight, check whether you made the second stitch in the increase.

Increase placement controls shape. A pattern might put increases at the edges, at fixed points in a round or in a more scattered arrangement. Follow that placement rather than adding an increase whenever the fabric looks narrow.

This one-row exercise demonstrates the movement and arithmetic. It does not establish a universal flat-circle formula or a finished size. Yarn, hook, stitch height and the full sequence of rounds all affect the result.

When you are comfortable identifying the two new tops, explore amigurumi construction. Use the stitch counter to record completed rows or rounds, and still check the stitches in the fabric yourself.