Crocheted ball fringe

The final part of the section on trims from the American Thread Company booklet (at the right) is a crocheted ball fringe.

It starts out as the cap on the cap fringe did:
"ch 4, join to form a ring, ch 1". But, instead of making 6 sc's into the chain ring, make 8 sc's.

Then for the next round, as with the cap fringe: "2 sc in each sc". (You are now working in a spiral.) -- 16 sc's in this round.

The next 4 rounds are just like those worked for the cap fringe. -- 16 sc's each round

Next, comes the part where you stuff the ball with scraps (cotton or wool or the like) before starting the narrowing process.

This pattern uses a different method of decreasing than was discussed earlier in a post on increasing and decreasing. Instead of crocheting 2 sts together, you just skip a stitch.

So, the next round is "start narrowing by skipping every 3rd st". -- 11 sc's this round (by my count)

Then for the next 2 rounds, you narrow even faster by "skipping every other st." -- either 5 or 6 sc's in the first round (depending on whether you skip then sc or vice versa) -- It really doesn't matter. And either 2 or 3 sc's in the second round. Finish this part off by making a slip stitch.

Finally, without breaking the yarn, make a chain of whatever length you'd like, and attach it. From the picture, it looks as though one does not join the chain to the mesh by slip stitching the last chain st to the bottom of the mesh. Instead, one attaches the chain by placing the chain around the mesh and then making a slip st to join the last chain st to the third (or possibly 4th) from last ch st -- thus making a small loop into the mesh.

Index to crochet articles on this blog