Crochetbug

Once I had all of my hexagons and pentagons made and with the ends woven in, I used this picture to guide me in placing the hexagons and pentagons:

Unfolded soccer ball

I began by making three panels with a pentagon at the center. What follows is a pictorial example of how I made the three panels.

First, I arranged five hexagons around one pentagon in a manner that I found visually pleasing.

Pentagon and five hexagons

Next, I put the right sides of two hexagons together and (with a slip knot already on the hook) inserted the hook through both loops of the chain-1 stitch of both hexagons. I then completed 11 single crochet stitches.

Hook with slip knot

I followed the same procedure for the next three seams.

Joined: Four sides of five hexagons

To complete the fifth and final seam of the ring, I folded the unclosed ring in half and joined as pictured. After this seam was joined, the ring did not lay flat.

Joining the fifth seam of five

Here is what it looked like when all of the seams of the hexagon were joined.

Ring of 5 hexagons for a soccer ball

To join the pentagon to the ring, I place the pentagon (right side facing down) inside the ring of hexagons (right side facing down).

Pentagon and ring of hexagons with right-side facing down

I then, using yarn the color of the pentatgon, I inserted my 4.00mm hook (with a slip knot already attached), through both loops of the chain-1 stitch on the corresponding corners of the pentagon and one of the hexagons. I then completed a total of 11 single crochet stitches through both loops of the corresponding stitches of the pentagon and the hexagon.

Joining the pentagon to a ring of hexagons

When I got to the end of that first side, I did the same for the second side, BUT THIS TIME, the first stitch of 2nd side of the pentagon was the 11th stitch of the first side of the pentagon. I continued like this all the way around until it was joined in it’s entirety, and used a slip stitch to join the last single crochet made to the first single crochet made.

One ring of hexagons and a pentagon assembled into a panel

There are a total of 55 single crochet stitches made to join the pentagon to the ring of hexagons.

Once I had joined the 3 panels, I used the diagram shown at the beginning of this page as a guide to laying out my panels and remaining hexagons and pentagons. I used safety pins to join the sides to each other so I could keep better track, but I think it would have been less problematic to tie them together with scraps of yarn.

Once I had the hexagons and pentagons fixed to each other, I began joining the seams using the same principles and methods I used for the three panels.