The Classicist

Another Platonic solid. So much time and effort for something fairly unimpressive. Disheartening. This one at least has neater seams, but nylon thread would probably be neater still.

Potential solutions to the spiralling granny square problem (forgive the clumsy middle-of-the-row joins, I normally join in the corner, but I wanted to make sure that corner-joins weren't affecting what I was trying): As crocheters will know, any granny square of sufficient size will start to develop a spiral. How quickly it develops will vary based on tension and the particular signature of an individual crocheter, but the spiral is inevitable because of the fact that crochet stitches lean to the left. You can see it starting to develop on the top left square, most notably along the left side edge. One common solution is simply to turn the work after every round - that's what's happening in the top right square. Note the distinct absence of a spiral forming. The "problem" with this solution is that every other row has the "wrong side" of the stitch facing. But some might not consider this a problem at all - after all, this is what happens anyway when you're working rows rather than rounds. It will look best if you make sure you finish with a right side row, though, because working like this essentially creates a two-row repeat. So if your square has an odd number of rounds, this might bother you more. Another common solution is to block the work. Personally, I'm not a fan of blocking because the results vary so much based on what yarn you're using (the higher the natural fiber content, the better standard blocking will work. You can steam block fairly well for acrylic yarns). But blocking is always only a temporary solution: as soon as you wash the piece you have to repeat the blocking process. The solution I'm experimenting with now is the bottom one in the photo. A while ago I discovered that a friend of mine crochets wrapping the yarn what most would consider "the wrong way" (if it works for you, who cares?) I.e she wraps the yarn clockwise around the hook, whereas most people wrap anticlockwise (or counterclockwise). This means that both the right and the wrong side of the stitch look different to a piece producing the more common way, because it's not a total inversion of the common method - you're still inserting the hook from the front to the back of the stitch you're working into. However, if you totally invert the technique: wrap clockwise -and- insert the hook from the back to the front of the stitch, what you essentially produce is a right-side row, worked from the back, with the stitches slanting to the right. This solves the "wrong side row" problem and still gives you stitches that slant the other way to balance out the spiral problem. Interestingly, working this way seems to accentuate the spiral happening in each individual row/round, but still gives you a non-spiralling square. Problems with this technique: you're essentially learning a new stitch, and because you're wrapping the yarn a different way you're actually changing the amount of yarn involved in each yarn over. This means you're not only learning a new stitch, but have to hold your hook in a different way to try and adjust the length of yarn involved in a yarn over to match that of your normal stitches. Another problem: it makes the first stitch you work into after a corner really small and tight, and a bit of a fiddle to work into. As of yet, I don't know if the individual spiralling of each round would become less obvious if I was more practiced at the stitch. Another note: once you've worked the initial yarn over clockwise, inserted the hook the wrong way and pulled the loop through the stitch with a clockwise wrap, you can revert to the normal anticlockwise yarn overs for the rest of the stitch, and it'll still look good. This will help reduce some of the tension issues in constructing the stitch, but not that created by the initial yarn over. I have a few more ideas I haven't seen elsewhere that I still want to try, but I got impatient because I wanted to start another project (a crocheted Ancient Greek pithos) and I wanted to try out the ideas I had for that before I forgot them. The problem with experimentation is patience, and I don't always have it.

Die Nase. I've been writing fragmentary bits of pattern for a crochet face for years now, and finally put hook to yarn and made a prototype nose today. Here are my "pattern" notes, which also function well to show why I don't write patterns: Dec, Dec, inc, inc, Dec Dec Inc inc Plain x 3 Inc inc Plain x3 Sl, ch2, dc2tog, ch2, sl Dc flt Sc3tog The next challenges are figuring out eyes and lips, and then, of course, integrating them into one pattern. (Eye holes are easy enough, but sculpting the curves of eyelids a little harder).

I will (hopefully) explain more about the Timaeus (A Platonic dialogue where these solids are mentioned) as I make more and expand/explore/refine.

I wish my WIP photos were more interesting/aesthetic/intriguing, but hey. As long as the finished pieces have those qualities I won't complain too much.

I've also been playing with wire crochet again.

Things I'm working on at the moment: a giant hyperbolic mass, in super bulky/chunky yarn. This is 12 balls in. (It takes about 40 minutes to get through one ball). And some geometric crochet - beginning with a simple series of Platonic Solids. Currently layering and layering fabric stiffener onto one triangle for the tetrahedron to see how many coats it's going to take to get a sturdy enough facet.