The Infamous Chicken Viking Hat - Now In Crochet! * Tutorial *

Wow, thanks for all the nice words, everyone! I do really really hope to have a tutorial coming soon, but I think I may have jumped the gun in posting this, because I'm not quite ready yet, and looking at my schedule coming up this week... eek! I'd better get going..... I know.. I think I'll post a little tutorial now, and then come clean with the details later, if anyone has questions! Ok.

Tutorial for Now:

Use Lion Jiffy Light Pink. It has juuuust enough orange in it to look like chicken skin without being tooo pink. Beware: This yarn is horrible to rip out (frog stitch) the fuzzies catch like mad.

For the body, I used a size g Hook. For the Drumsticks, I used a size E or D, not important which.

For the drumsticks: Start at the thicker end of the leg. (The bottom). Chain 3, slip stitch to join, 6 sc's in center of the little circle you just made. Only 6! then work around in SC. you will be spiraling, not working in defined rows. (No chaining one to get up to the next row) At first, you'll be increasing alot, like every stitch, then every other stitch or so, and then with 2 or 3 in between increases,eventually, you want to get to the point where you've got around 22 stiches and the whole thing looks like half a sphere. Then stop increasing for a round or two, and then start decreasing (but not too fast! This is where the skill of shaping is born... give it a whirl! This was my very first try, and it totally wasnt too bad!)make it Gradually smaller until you're down to about 7 stiches around, and not quite as long as you want the leg to be. For the "paper hat" at the end of the legs, I used Red heart "baby Teri".. you can use whatever white stuff you have around, the softer the better, but NOT too bulky. I used baby weight, for example.I just sc around the end of the leg, then started putting 3 or 4 or 5 dc in each stitch. then join to first dc and then you have two options... the point is to take the big floppy circle you just created and push it flat together so it looks like a fan, and sc or sew the m together at the top in the middle, and then bring up the two ends of the fan to the center, so you have somehing that looks a little like a 4 leaf clover when viewed from directly above, and sc the tops of those two together, and then end off. You could also end off earlier, and use a needle to Sew them together, if sc would look weird in the yarn you have. Here is a picture of what it should look like when finished:

http://www.reachone.com/kent/CVHMultiFootDetail.JPG

http://www.reachone.com/kent/CVHMultiFoot.JPG

oh, ok, so I made 5 lobes instead of 4 like in the instructions. Whatever. Make it however you like it.

There's that, Congratulations, you're on your way to making free-form crochet objects!

Ok the hat part:

This is the way I made THIS hat. If you don't like the "bumps" then just omit the dc's in the pattern, and it will be without big bumps... (halfway through, i had a battle with myself about if i liked the bumps or not, good thing is, if i dont like them, I can push them through to the inside, and then they dont's show!)

This hat is made in the round up to the brim, and then it is turned inside-out, and then the brim is worked. Here is a pic of what it looks like at that point: (Same color yarn, only, in the sun!) AND I have all the bumps still sticking out on the "Right side" which is of course on the INside right now, and so this is a good example of what it looks like WITHOUT bumps.

http://www.reachone.com/kent/CVH-IOPreFlaps.jpg

Ok. So. The reason I turn it inside out, is because, especially using this yarn, the inside looks a lot like chicken skin all by itself!

So, the hat: I followed these instructions kind of loosely:

NOTE! In THIS part of the hat, always stitch in both loops. No the front one, or the back one, both.

1: Ch 1, 6 sc in circle, join to first sc.

2: Ch 1, 2 sc in each sc across. Join to first sc

3: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1 in next) around. (You can Spiral now, if you wish, I did)

4: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1in next 2) around.

5: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1 in next 3) around.

6: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1 in next 4) around.

7: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1 in next 5) around.

8: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1 in next 6) around.

9: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1 in next 7) around.

10: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1 in next Cool

around.

11: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1 in next 9) around.

12: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1 in next 10) around.

13: Ch 1, (2 sc in next sc, 1 in next 11) around.

14-27: Ch 1, sc in each sc around. Join.

End off.

But to make the bumps, you have to just eyeball it. Here's how to make a bump:

You noticet that this is starting to be a good placement for a bump. Without losing track of the counting you're doing for the hat: Make a very looose dc (pull the yo yarn out more than you usually would, both times during making the dc.) and then IN THE SAME SPACE, make a tight sc. Then move on. Now, when you come to a bump that was made on the previous row, be sure to skip that dc stitch and sc tightly the next stitch. That will cause the bump to stick out better, and also for you not to accidentally increase because you're making all these 'extra' dc stitches. For bump placement: you really have to eyeball it. It doesnt need to be perfect. You'll get the hang of it really quick. I make 3 or 4 bumps spaced out from each other in the 3rd or 4th row of the hat, and just stagger them from there. If you choose not to do bumps, your hat making will be much less complicated. I ended up having to use a stitch marker alot, because in all the excitement of making bumps, I OFTEN lost track of stitches inbetween increases. Eventually, I just marked every increase i made, and re-counted when i felt like another one should be coming up.

Ok, this post is getting too long, so see page 3 for the rest! Sorry to have to split it up. I gotta. 10000 character limit. This could be a thesis...