I am very happy to share that this experiment actually worked! 😁🧶
This is something I had pondered for a while: could we 1) crochet a doily pattern to reach a hat circumference, 2) repeat the last crocheted round to form a band, and 3) continue the doily pattern for a brim?
Honestly, I am so accustomed to failed experiments that I was surprised by the outcome. 🤣 I cannot say it would work with all doily patterns, but it worked with these two:
The first hat (left above) was made using the Chunky Monkey Rug pattern at REDAGAPE Crochet:
When our DMC Natura Just Cotton XL arrived in store at Yummy Yarn and co, i just knew i needed to design a crochet pattern for a chunky floo
I love how this dolly shade hat turned out! The pattern was well-written and a good candidate for an experienced beginner. My yarn and hook sizes had me working to round #5, repeating that five times more, and then working out to round #13.
🧶👒
The second hat was made using the Turbulence Mandala pattern at FROSTVIRKA:
In English belowDet var länge sen jag designade en mandala, men nu fanns inspirationen här och så här blev resultatet! Till slut lyckades ja
This hat turned out a smidge fancier - don't you agree? The pattern was well-written though somewhat abbreviated: the stitches are simple, but a little more experience is needed to assume the next steps. My yarn and hook sizes had me working to round #4, repeating that five times more, and then working out to round #12.
🧶👒
For both hats I used leftover radio wire from the pupper's invisible fence days to shape the rim. I referenced actual real-live hat patterns calling for jewelry wire and heavy fishing line, but neither of those worked as well as the coated radio wire. And everyone lived happily ever after. The End 🍃
🌡#stitchghan temperature blanket : January - December recorded. 🤗❤
This is an experiment using stitches to represent temperature averages rather than color. Now to decide what sort of border to add. 🙄
The best thing about this crochet experiment is definitely cost. Working with only one color, my current investment is less than three jumbo skeins. And there's no ends to weave from color changes! Actually, that may be the best thing about this experiment. 😂
The down side is some of my stitch bands are tighter than others. Hopefully the edging will help it to lay better. Ugh. TBD...
Okay so! It’s been almost a month, my yarn has long since arrived, and I’ve tried out some more stitch patterns. AND I have all the measurements I need now! :-D So if you’re interested in my crochet adventure(s), keep reading below the cut - or have some more links first:
here’s part 1 of the mermaid tail
I’m filing everything under #Anna crochets a mermaid tail
I posted two links to interesting stitch patterns in part one, and I’ve tried both of them. The large, elaborate shell pattern here was easily the most complex pattern I’ve ever tried (definitely not for beginners), and while I could crochet it alright, I wouldn’t have been able to modify it sufficiently for my needs (decreasing in the round). Also when doing this with double-stranded yarn, those shells became huge, like larger than my palm. I didn’t take pictures though, just ripped it up again after deeming it unsuitable.
The other one was more interesting, have a picture of my test sample:
Very recognisable shells (scales), and quite warm since it’s a double layer. However, this means it’s also a yarn hog just like crocodile stitch, and also takes a while to do.
I thought a little about what I wanted it to look like in the end and on where and how to decrease, crocheting top down. I’d like to have larger scales at the top and medium to small scales when decreasing in diameter. So I experimented a bit with the shell pattern from part one, doubling them in size by making them two rows of double crochet (US) instead of just one, but this time I attached the rows to the back bars of the row below (instead of just the back loops). This made the shells even more pronounced, and I liked it a lot.
Then I tried a decrease by making a round of smaller shells, and another round of even smaller shells (successively substituting half double crochet for the double crochet stitches), and then one single row of double crochet shells so I’d be at roughly the same height everywhere, and then I made large shells again, but only five instead of six of them. This means that the shells don’t line up with the ones in the rows below, but it looks okay I think, so this method of decreasing should work (it was quite the arithmetical pain though, will explain better when I come to that in the actual tail). You can see the decrease in the picture though:
And THEN I thought, why not give the shells some overlap by attaching each new round of shells to the middle of the back of previous shells...? I just added on to that sample, here’s a picture where I try to show you the overlap by lifting the shells apart with my hand:
NICE, isn’t it? Of course, this also means more work and more yarn, like any version with an overlap. Hum... now that I’m looking at those pictures and thinking about it, I might have to reconsider. Because :-) after making this bit above, I felt I’d stumbled upon the holy grail of mermaid tail scale patterns :-D and promptly started out on the real thing! Have a lousy picture of the very first round of large scales, taken with the flash on because it was in the middle of the night...:
And here you can see how these large shells are made up of two rows (first row is ch 1, sk 2, sl st, sk 2, 5 dc in next, sk 2, sl st, ch 2, sk 2, sl st, repeat; second row is just 2 dc in each dc of prev row, sl st into the one sl st of prev row that you’re not covering with the dc stitches):
So as I said, I liked that half-overlap pattern, and I’ve consequently made three rounds already...:
Buuuut now I’m thinking that the non-overlap pattern I started the last sample with was nice enough really. It would be faster to do. Hum... need to meditate on this I think.
Anyway, the other thing I came to a conclusion on was the colouring. Have a very simplified coloured sketch that also didn’t scan too well:
To say it in words, I intend to start out with dark purple, then go through all shades of plum and magenta and lavender and whatever I can make with combinations of the yarn that I have, then have a light bit around the ankles, and go back to dark up to the fin tip. Here’s all the yarn colours I have to make that happen:
Not sure what to do with the blueish colours yet; maybe use as accents somewhere? And I’m also a little unsure about the variegated yarn (a fabulous colourway called ‘tasty marmalade’), but it was just too gorgeous not to buy! It’ll probably fit in nicely though.
Anyway, that’s it for today! I’ll do some soulsearching on the stitch pattern now. By my calculations, if I keep the overlap pattern, I’m gaining 2 cm with each round of large shells, so if the tail consisted only of large shells, it’d be about 54 rounds down to the ankles. So if I can crochet one round of large shells a day, the main part of the tail (without the fin) would be done in roughly two months. This is a very simplified calculation obviously, but since the medium and small scales would go with a narrower diameter as well, it’s probably a good estimate. Can I do a whole round of large scales a day (on average) for two months? Hum. I need to meditate. :-)
