Hairy situations

My dear BF sent me a birthday package that included some fun fur yarn in variegated green, blue, and yellow. It made me think of Muppets. I had some fun fur in my stash already – some black that is waiting to become Barbabeau, and some bright purple and hot pink that, actually, the BF’s mother handed down to me – but this stuff inspired me to actually make a stab at crocheting something now.

My first attempt was with the steel hook I use for embroidery floss (2.75mm), since the main strand of fun fur is not very large. I can’t recommend it. The fluff makes it very hard to see what you’re doing anyway, and also means that even with a larger hook the fabric is solid enough to keep stuffing in. It’s not that I didn’t succeed in crocheting in my first attempt, but the result didn’t look like much. My second attempt was with my trusty E hook (3.5mm) and went much, much better.

fuzzy guy on a post fuzzy guy on a post

I freehanded this because it was just too overwhelming to try to keep track of stitch counts. It started out with 6 sc, then 12 sc, then I increased in every other stitch for a while, then sc’d around a few times, then decreased with every other stitch for about two rounds, then stitched around once or so, then started increasing in every other stitch for a while. Before I’d decreased too much I put in the eyes. At some point in the body I chained out and sc’d back for arms, and later chained out more and hdc’d back for legs, and finally chained out still more, sc’d four times in the first chain and then slip stitched back for the tail. Then I tried to decrease at a rate that would make the bottom flat. The initial yarn tail sticks out the top like a Dr. Seuss drawing; my inspiration was that combined with my image of a Creep or Woodie from the Moomintroll books.

in progress
As good as it gets, visibility-wise.

Some things I learned, besides the fact that the hook shouldn’t be too small:
– the “right side” is what would in normal yarn be the back/inside. At least for me. That’s the side the fuzz wanted to mostly be on.
– a magic circle doesn’t work at all – once you’ve got a few stitches into it, you can’t pull it tight because it’s all hung up on the fluff. You have to slipknot, ch 2, and work the first round into the first ch.
– likewise, I didn’t try to do an invisible decrease. It could be done, in the back loops instead of the front loops, but it seemed more difficult than it was worth. Also, the yarn is not elastic, adding that difficulty.
– of course, half the time I sc’d into the back loop only anyway, because finding the other one was too much work. Visibility is poor. On the other hand, no one looking at the finished work can really make out your stitches anyway. Freedom!

And then I discovered all my tips were already available from June Gilbank.

fuzzy guy in  tree
They all end up in trees. In this one you can see the initial yarn end hanging.

fuzzy baby
The baby I made first.

Nonorientable crochet

Do you want a yarn Möbius strip? Of course you do – who doesn’t?

mobius with ants
Every Möbius strip needs ants.

One of the crochet techniques I have yet to master is working in the round when the beginning is an open hole instead of a magic circle or a chain that is worked on both sides. I can’t connect the ends of the starting chain to my satisfaction; there is always a big wonky bump at the join.

However, some experimentation has led me to the following discovery: it is easy to make a crochet Möbius strip that requires no sewing. This is hardly news, as the internet will tell you, but I think my instructions are easier, or at least more specific, than the ones I’ve seen online.

Crochet Möbius Strip: Make a chain as long as you want. There will be a natural way for the chain to come off the hook to the left with the back bumps facing up and the front teardrops facing down. With the back bumps facing up the whole length of the chain, bring the slipknot end toward you and to the hook to make the chain into a loop. Insert the hook from outside the loop to inside the loop through the back bump closest to the slipknot, and slip stitch to join the ends.

starting the strip
The back bumps go around the top when it’s set down like this.

Now, crochet around, using the back bumps, until you get back to the slipknot. Crochet into your initial slip stitch. It should be natural to make your next stitch in the front teardrop of the chain closest to the slipknot. Now the next time you get back to your slipknot it should be natural to crochet into the first stitch you made after slip-knotting the chain into a loop. Keep going until the Möbius strip is as wide as you want, making sure when you end, the rows are aligned on each side of the slipknot.

I found that my yarn tail was a useful indicator – if it faced toward me after I had put crochets on each side of the starting chain, then I needed to finish with it facing toward me.

Of course, this method makes the Möbius strip curl a bit into an S cross-section, since stitch rows tend to lean forward or back. I tried to change direction for the last row, but as you can see I ended up with a little nub at the turning (bottom center):

compact mobius strip

I tried a second time but didn’t come up with a solution that satisfied me.

Mesh Crochet Möbius Strip: Looking at the Escher picture made me think of crocheted mesh, so I tried that as well (see the crochet abbreviations). For this you must chain a multiple of 3 – it is better here to use the same size hook throughout. Slip stitch to join as described above, and chain 5. Skip two chains and dc into the next, in the back bump. (ch 2, sk 2 sts, dc in back bump) until you get back to your slip knot. This is a bit wobblier than sc, so make sure it is not twisted, ch 2 and do the next dc into the front teardrop of the first ch you made – it seems like you’re skipping 3 sts, but the joining slip stitch and initial chain are really the same stitch. (ch 2, sk 2 sts, dc in front teardrop) around, until you get to the ch 5. Ch 2 and sl st into the middle ch of the ch 5.

Now, *turn if desired, ch 5, (sk 2 sts, dc, ch 2) around (i.e., twice around initial chain), sl st in middle ch of ch 5; repeat from * until the Möbius strip is as wide as you like.

I washed these to see if the mesh would even itself out a little; the ch-5 squares and the squares on the starting chain didn’t really match the others. Of course, they crumpled up.

crumpled mobius strips

Q. How does one block a Möbius strip? A. With an iron. They smoothed out nicely. And are very decorative on my lampshade.

ironed mobius strips lampshade mobius strips

Flowers and cupcakes

May’s Amigurumi Army mission was flowers. Actually, the week from Apr 28 to May 4 in Iron Craft was also flowers, but I did not complete anything in time. I had a sad half-done daylily on my end table for half the month.

Finally I decided to go for it, finished the daylily, and made a flower that I intended to be a carnation but which may have ended up more like a small rose.

rose and daylily

Patterns! Note that both flowers involve stopping or turning in the middle of a row. Abbreviations are explained here.

Rose or Carnation:  
In any plausible color. (which with dyed carnations is pretty much any color)
– ch 37
– sc in second ch from hk, (ch 2, sc) five times, sc 30, ch 2, turn
– hdc 18, sc 12, ch 3, turn
– sc, (ch 3, sc) eleven times, sc, (ch 4, hdc) seventeen times
– ch 1, sc down side edge, FO.
– Roll up starting with narrow end.

rose before rolling

Daylily:  
make 5 in orange, yellow, or desired color.
– ch 10, sl st in second ch from hk, sc, hdc, sc 5, sl st
– ch 1; on opp side of starting ch: sl st, sc 3, sl st
– FO. Sew together overlapping each petal on the previous. To match real daylilies, the first petal should be completely on the top and the last one completely on the bottom.

lily sewn but unstemmed

After sewing the flowers together I wrapped the loose floss ends around pipe cleaners and wound them with florist’s tape.

flowers from back

Meanwhile, I joined another monthly crochet challenge group on Ravelry, and their May theme was food. I had previously made a lemon and an apple, but my food crochet was pretty limited. I couldn’t think of what to do, until I realized I’d never made a cupcake, which seems to be the canonical crochet foodstuff. I freehanded one over the course of two days. Afterward I discovered I couldn’t find any pins with plastic ball ends (nor the tomato pincushion I think they were in…) to be sprinkles. I did, however, know where my leaf-ended pins were, so I made another rose to top the cupcake. The one I made sure to sew so the bottom was a flat disc, not too tight, and then fluffed out the petals a bit more.

cupcake on plate

cupcake in tin

close-up of flower