"Round" crochet help

[EnglishRose]

I am attempting to crochet a ball to fill with catnip as a gift for a friend of mine who just adopted a cat.

I cannot make it work. The edges of the circle are curling up, and the result is about the size of an acorn. (Too small)

I am a verrrrry begining crocheter. I know chain stich; I have made two scarves with chain stich. I don't know how to read crochet patterns - that's why I'm posting here, in the hopes that someone will take pity on the poor newbie!

HELP!! Please teach me how to crochet this ball. I know it can't be that difficult. (BTW, it has to be about 2" in diameter)

TIA!

[cristeen]

The edges of your circle are curling up because you're not increasing enough. At that size, you're probably looking at doing 2 stitches in every stitch until you get to the width you want. Then do a round or two even (no increases, no decreases), then start decreasing the opposite of how you increased.

And I would start with an adjustable ring foundation. You can find the details for that on Crochetcabana.com

[texaspeach]

try here she has a picture tutorial for the magic ring

for the pattern -go through the written pattern and substitute the words "single crochet" for the sc abbreviation. that makes it easier to read. all you need to know is how to increase and how to decrease.

you don't need to change colors or anything, so ignore the instructions to switch colors if you want a plain ball.

[EnglishRose]

Thanks for the help!

I love the patterns you linked!

Just one more question:

What do the following abbreviations mean?

sc- single crochet (thanks!)
cc-
mc-
st- stitch (?)

[texaspeach]

yeap st is stitch

cc is contrasting color, and mc is main color, for doing stripes like the picture