Wiggly Cushion - finally finished!

To all of you who have wondered what ever happened to my wiggly cushion: it's finished at last! Look:

You might think that I have been really lazy because it took so long, but I swear: I've been working on it ever since I've started it, but at times it seemed there was no end in sight. When the rounds got bigger, I really thought it would take forever! I've worked the ruffles with a rather thin cotton yarn (Catania) and a 2.5mm hook, so I had to add round after round before it had the size to fit the little (!) IKEA cushion. I LOVE close-ups:

All in all I'm quite happy with it: this is my first wiggly cushion that has exactly the same structure that my Grandma's cushions used to have, and it's not so... sloppy like the ones I've made before. But: I think it will take a while before I'll make another one, it's been a little too much effort for such a little cushion :)

With a front side like this, I wanted to have a simple back side and turned a striped pattern that I've seen on Petite Fee into a Granny Square:

Today I've discovered that I'm in very good company: Angie from Le Monde de Sucrette has used the same pattern for her Mosaic Cushion. It looks great with the colors she has chosen and you can also find the pattern on her site!

A few more words about wiggly crochet: First of all, thank you so much for the positive feedback on my Tutorial Part 1 and Part 2. I love reading your comments, they really make my day! (If this is your first visit to k-town and you like this cushion, please check out the tutorial and learn how to make your own wiggly cushion)

For those of you who'd like to see more wiggly crochet, here are some links I've found recently:

Bianca has posted a german tutorial on her blog "Haekelnerd". You'll find lots of pictures of her wiggly pattern that can be used for making a potholder or even a purse.

On Say-very Sweet Things there's an english tutorial for a wiggly square and Lindevrouw has translated this pattern into dutch and used it for a lovely cushion.

Ninu and Saritha have joined a Ravelry CAL (I don't know if it's been the same one) and showed pictures of their wiggly crochet on their blogs, check it out to get inspired!

That's all for today, I wish you all a happy and wiggly wednesday! :)

Wiggly Tutorial (2)

Tutorial: Wiggly Crochet K-Town-Style
(Part 2 - Hotpad/Cushion Pattern)

Please note: This is a free pattern for your personal use. If you'd like to share this tutorial (or parts of it, like the pictures or graphic patterns), please link back to made-in-k-town. Thank you!

Welcome back to Part 2 of my Wiggly Crochet Tutorial. In Part 1 I’ve showed you some basics: the foundation mesh, some pattern examples and two alternative ways to add the ruffles. Today I'll show you the easiest way to do the following pattern and adjust it to the right size you want for your finished project:

Of course, we could just start with the foundation mesh. However, there are some problems when you complete the whole mesh first, and then start with the pattern: First, you need to do a whole lot of analyzing, calculating and measuring until you know the number of empty squares you’ll need in your mesh so that you won’t have any problems with your pattern and the desired size of your finished work. And the “desired size” is the biggest problem: When starting with the whole foundation mesh first, my cushion covers never seemed to have the size I had planned before – my theory is that the mesh stretches a little when you squeeze so many stitches in, so in the end your finished item is probably larger than you’ve actually wanted.

That’s why I start my mesh in the middle, continue in rounds and break off after a while to start with the ruffles. This way I can control the size of my work and stop when it’s large enough.

For this tutorial I work my mesh with a thin tread and a 1.25mm hook, and the ruffles with a cotton yarn (Catania) and a 2.5mm hook. If you prefer working with a thicker yarn, no problem: just pick a slightly thinner yarn and hook for the mesh and everything will be alright.

Let’s go, here’s a graphic pattern:

Begin with ch12, join with a slst to form a ring. Please note for the following rounds: Always work your dc into the specific indicated chain and not just inside the foundation ring!

Rnd 1: ch5 (counts as 1dc and ch2), skip 2 chains of your foundation ring and work a dc into the 3rd chain of your ring. Ch5 (that’s your corner) and work another dc into the same chain as before. Ch2, skip 2 ch and work a dc into the 6th ch of your ring. Ch5 (corner) and work another dc into the same chain as before. Ch2, skip 2 ch and work a dc into the 9th ch of your ring. Ch5 and work 1 dc into the same chain as before. Ch2, skip 2 ch, 1 dc into the last chain of your ring. Ch 5 and join with a slst to third chain of ch5.

Rnd 2: ch5 (counts as 1dc and ch2) and work 1dc into the dc of the previous round. Ch2 and work 1dc into the middle chain of the ch5 (corner) of the previous round. Ch5 and work another dc into the same chain as before. Continue this way and join with a slst to third chain of ch5.

Continue this pattern until your mesh has got the desired size. Again: make sure you always work your dc into the specific indicated chain and not just inside the ch5-space!!

When you’ve completed five rounds you should have a mesh with 11x11 squares looking like this:

Don’t worry if your mesh doesn’t look super-neat, you won’t see much of it later anyway! By now we could start with the first three “wiggly” rounds of our pattern, shall we? Secure the last loop of your mesh (don’t fasten off!), pick the yarn you’ve chosen for the ruffles, and just work your dc4-groups around the posts/bars with your favorite method (A or B, see Tutorial Part 1). If you have a close look at the sketch, you see that there are always “naked” bars between the ruffles, make sure you always leave those bars/posts naked while you’re working the pattern! I’ve marked our first rounds green:

I’m using method B (counter-clockwise, the right side of the dc’s facing inwards), so mine looks like this now:

It’s important that your mesh has always got one round more than you would actually need for the pattern: this makes it easier to continue the mesh later! Here’s a picture from the backside where you can see the extra-round better:

My patch is still tiny (not even a small coaster size), how about yours? I think I’ll add four more rounds of mesh, enough to make two more rounds of ruffles…

On this picture it’s clearly visible how the mesh stretches where I’ve worked the ruffles. It’s still a bit too small for a hotpad, but nevertheless I’ll leave it with this size and start the side rows of the pattern. Perhaps by now you’ve noticed how long it takes and how much yarn you need to make a whole round of ruffles – so better think twice before you make a cushion:

Mine took ages (but I think this was mainly due to the rather thin yarn I’ve used). If yours is still too small, just keep adding rounds of mesh and rounds of ruffles, the pattern is very easy to adjust, look:

 (the thick black line is the original border)

The easiest way to adjust (or design) a more elaborate pattern is to take a piece of graph paper and outline the pattern.

Now back to this one. If you’ve got your perfect size, let’s start with the side rows:

I attach my yarn at starting point B and work “downstairs” along the green bars to point A (if you use method A, just do it the other way round). At the end of the row, fasten off and start the next row. I’m finished now, it looks like this:

I’ve decided to work the side rows with white only, but of course you could change the color with every row, just like I’ve done in the middle.
For the edge I used the same yarn as for the ruffles, and just added a row of hdc’s and finished with a row of reverse sc’s. And here’s my finished little hotpad:

Congratulations to anyone who's read this long, long story until the end. I hope you liked my Tutorial and enjoy wiggling... :)

Wiggly Tutorial (1)

 

Tutorial: Wiggly Crochet K-Town-Style
(Part 1 - The Basics)

Please note: If you'd like to share this tutorial (or parts of it, like the pictures or graphic patterns), please link back to made-in-k-town. Thank you!

Thanks for all your lovely comments about my wiggly cushion! Your enthusiasm really made me wanna write a damn good tutorial - at least I've tried my best :) This post turned out a little bit longer than I had usually planned, so today we start with Part 1 and I'll post Part 2 in a few days.

Let’s start with some basics. Usually you start with a foundation mesh that should look like this, just bigger (this is just a little patch):

For the mesh you keep repeating *1dc, ch2* in every row, just like in filet crochet with empty squares only. Here’s the graphic pattern for my little patch:

 Then you usually need a pattern that could look like this:

or this

The thin black lines symbolize your mesh, the thick colored lines indicate the bars/posts where you have to place your stitches. The stitches are usually groups of double crochet stitches: I like to work with 4dc-groups, but I’ve also seen patterns with 2dc-groups.

Basically you could use the same yarn for the dc’s as you used for your mesh, but I prefer making my mesh with a thinner yarn (or even thread) and then work the dc’s with a thicker yarn. This makes the whole structure look denser and the ruffles more pronounced.

There are actually two alternative ways to work your dc-groups into your mesh and your pattern will look a little bit different depending on which method you use (an amazing fact that I’ve just discovered when I started making this tutorial)!

Let’s start with Method A (clockwise):

Attach your yarn at the indicated starting point with a slip stitch (slst), work ch3 (they replace the first dc) and 3 dc around the same bar.

(it’s easier when you fold the mesh while working your stitches!)

Next, make a right turn and work 4dc around the next bar “just around the corner” (the second green bar in the pattern above). Please note: In both methods there are no chain stitches between the dc-groups! Follow the pattern (the pink lines) clockwise until you’ve reached your starting point and join with a slst. Your pattern should look like this, the right side of your dc’s should face outwards and the ruffles should fold a little towards the outside:

Method B (counter-clockwise) is my preferred way of working:

Notice the difference? Again, attach your yarn at the indicated starting point with a slst, and work your ch3 + 3dc around the first green bar. This time, make a left turn and work 4dc around the next green bar. Now follow the pink lines counter-clockwise until you’ve reached your starting point and join with a slst. This time, your pattern should look like this, the right side of your dc’s should face the center of the mesh, and the ruffles should stand up a little bit more:

 

The difference between the two methods might not be clearly visible on the pictures. Maybe you should just grab your hook and try both alternatives on two different meshes and then decide which look you like better.

These were the basics of wiggly crochet. In the next part of the tutorial I'll show you an alternative way of working your mesh (i.e. starting the mesh in the middle and working in rounds). This helps you to control the size of your work and makes it easier to follow (or adjust) a pattern. We'll combine this method with the pattern I used for my cushion, and you can decide if you want to make a cushion also, or leave it with a hotpad - I think I'll stay with the hotpad this time :)

Hope to see you back for the second part! :)

WWIP - Wiggly Work in Progress

Wow, I really enjoy this link-party, don’t you? You’ve added so many wonderful pictures already, and the party is still going on until Sunday! I’d like to ask you again to link to the specific post: It can be a little bit frustrating, when you’d like to see more of the lovely project and it’s hidden somewhere in the archive, don’t you think?

Now to my current project: recently I remembered a pattern I just loved when I was a teenager:

My parents used to have a cushion with the front part made this style (by my grandma, of course). I figured out how she did it and made some cushions myself. Unfortunately my parents don’t have their cushion anymore and I’ve found only one extraordinary ugly cushion that I’ve made years ago and that I’m too ashamed to post here.

Until last weekend I didn’t even know the name of this technique, so I searched a little and learned that this technique is called wiggly crochet or ruffling technique.

The basic idea is to crochet a foundation mesh and then work double crochet stitches around the bars of the mesh. I don’t know how others do this, but I’m using a slightly thinner yarn for the mesh, because this way the pattern looks denser and… just better, I think :)

I also start the mesh in the middle and work in rounds: this saves a lot of time I would need for calculating the right size of the mesh, and it’s also not so boring – after a few mesh rounds, I can add some colored ruffles, then continue a little with the mesh again, and so on until I’ve got the right size. Here's a picture of the back side:

As far as I’ve read, this technique is mainly used for rugs or hot pads, but I think I just make another cushion :)

I hope those of you who live at the East-Coast of the USA are okay after the earthquake (I’ve read about it in some blogs and it’s also in the News in Germany). Thankfully we’re safe from earthquakes here, but look at this picture I’ve taken 30 minutes ago:

It might look like a romantic sundown, but in fact it’s been a bad storm approaching k-town. I think it’s passed us now, but it might cause some damage somewhere else.

I wish you all a happy and safe evening, see you soon right here!

P.S: I can't believe I broke 100 followers, thank you all for reading this blog!! :)