Scrolling I saw reference to a Chaunacops fish, which is a deep ocean variety of sea toad that can be a lurid red. One of the commenters said it looked like their grandma crocheted it. Hm. Could I crochet one?
I’m in hat making mode, so rather than make a stuffed animal, I decorated a red beanie with fins, tail, and mouth.
I didn’t do a pattern, this just was a fun little experiment. I do like how well a single crochet ribbing does for making fins.
It amuses me greatly.
Another way to start a beanie is making a spiral. The good part of the spiral is that there is no seam where a row starts, so it works well with variegated yarn with a long stretches of color. The tricky part is you need to use stitch markers to mark the beginning of the round to get your increases correct, and you need to decrease stitch size at the brim before weaving in the end.
I’m not a fan of color pooling, which is when a variegated yarn lines up as you knit or crochet and you get patches of color. Random, strangely shaped patches. I was in the craft store with my youngest doing a store walk to get some exercise and fill time, and a skein of brightly colored yarn called my name. (Walking a craft store makes for an expensive trip, just for future information.) I started making a beanie and then the colors pooled. Yuck. This is probably one of the worst examples of color pooling. I didn’t realize that they put the cool shades and warm shades together and I ended up with garish almost paisleys rather than a blended rainbow.
Something this bold and in your face needs to be a beret rather than a beanie, so I kept going with the diameter. I made a stretchy band with ribbed single crochet, and there finally achieved a more pleasant to my eye color shift.
I didn’t rip out the work, because everyone is different and there might be someone attracted to the fire and ice flames of the hat, and have the personality to pull off the bold beret. Or at least keep their head warm.
I’ve come up with a worry worm pattern I prefer. I don’t really care for the flat head version, so I put the eyes on the end of the spiral, rather than making a separate head. I’ll share the pattern at the bottom, but I had to show you the familiar muppet face that serendipitously showed up on one worm.
I really like making these with a variegated yarn that has a medium length color change, because then the worm comes out in two, maybe three colors. Shorter color changes are OK, but not as dramatic. I have been filling waiting time making worry worms as a fundraiser for my chorus, as a gift for donations.
I came up with the poem, there are many varieties out there on the web, but I wanted one with singing. The poem is:
Tell it your worries, it won’t mind,
Sing it a song, it’ll find it devine.
Give it a hug, until you feel healed,
Tell it your troubles, its lips are sealed!
To make them, I use worsted weight yarn scraps or variegated yarn. Acrylic is best for this to avoid any natural fiber allergies. I use a size J hook, but different hook sizes will still make a worm, just in different sizes and densities.
I start with a crochet chain, and weave in the tail as I chain. Before you make a chain stitch, flip the tail between the hook and the working yarn, this will catch the end in the next chain stitch. The end will become the nose. Chain 30.
In the second chain from the hook, make 3 single crochets (or half double crochets if you want a thicker worm). Make three stitches in each chain stitch all the way along. The worm will naturally spiral on its own, but can be encouraged by twisting.
Cut the yarn about 8 inches from the end and pull the last loop out. Thread it on a yarn needle and run the needle under three stitches to form the head. Add a sew-on googly eye, run the needle through three more stitches and add a second eye. Weave in the end.
Worm achieved.
I washed a load of crocheted hats with fabric softener and then dried them with a dryer sheet to get the inexpensive acrylic to soften up some. The technique works and the hats just need some labels and they’ll be ready for the chorus craft sale.
Current hat count: 35. I’m almost through all the acrylic yarn.
Critters and Craft 