Crocheted cap fringe

Continuing through the section on trims, we come to the crocheted cap fringe. The instructions are at the right and a picture below, both from the American Thread booklet.

One starts with an open mesh just as for the other fringes. Because of the width of the caps, the fringe is attached to every other open mesh.

The first step is making the caps. Just as when making the Irish Crochet Rose, one starts with a chain ring -- "ch 4, join to form a ring". Join is just another way of saying slip stitch.

Then "ch1, 6 sc into ring, join".
The ch 1 at the beginning of the round is to get the tops of all the sc's at the same height. Otherwise, without a ch 1 at the beginning of the round, the first sc would be a little smaller in height than the rest. One would join (slip stitch) into the top of the first sc made.

A ch 1 at the beginning of a sc round is used when working in the round. No ch 1 at the beginning of a round is used when working in a spiral.

"2 sc in each sc" There are now 12 sc's in the round. Notice that this round didn't begin with a ch 1.

"without joining rows, work 2 rows of sc working 1 sc into each sc" The last 2 rounds are worked in a spiral. This forms the sides of the cap.

"Break thread" You don't need to slip stitch into the next stitch. But, after you cut the thread and pull the thread around the hook until the loose end is through, you should first weave it into the next stitch as you start weaving in ends.

For the fringe itself, we'll need about 20 6"-lengths of thread. Tie the strands together in the middle with a simple overhand knot. Pull one end of the strands up through the middle of the cap, through an open mesh hole, and then back through the top of the cap. (A crochet hook is useful for this.) Then make another simple overhand knot over the last one to secure the strands. My best guess is that a knot on top of a knot inside the cap will give the cap a little extra bulk and also keep the cap from sliding off.

Index to crochet articles on this blog