Maths and Crochet?

 Yes auto-correct spelling thing I have put 'Maths' above and I mean it - not the American spelling 'Math' - get over it.

    Ahem.

    I may have mentioned my next big(ish) project which I have decided to try and create an underwater scene, which will involve, coral, sea shells, fish etc. So I put 'crochet coral' into the Google search thingy and WOW! up came an exhibition of enormous crocheted pieces by Margaret Wertheim and her sister Christine who are based in Los Angeles.

    I was fascinated by the intricately curly pieces they had created, and which look enormously complicated to crochet. 

    After a bit of searching on the Net, I found that this was a well known thing called Hyperbolic Scumble and is actually very, very easy to have a go at, and to create some fab pieces.

    So I have.

The main principle is very simple: each round you increase the number of stitches in a set sequence you have decided upon before hand.

    So, for example, your pattern might be, increase a stitch every other stitch, or every third stitch or every fourth stitch. You must also decide on your basic shape before you start. The standard shapes are either rows or rounds. In the above photos the top and bottom ones are based around circles, the one in the middle is a 'dumbell' shape, two circles connected by a straight piece. And basically you just go round and round working your pattern.

    Now most folks who do crochet will know that when you are making a flat circle, you have to make increases in each row in order to keep it flat. If you do the same number of stitches in each row, your circle grows upwards like a vase or cup, instead of laying flat.

    The standard increase to make a flat circle is first round, say, 8 stitches, the second row needs two stitches in each of your base row, so 16 stitches, the next row needs an increase every other stitch so 24 stitches, the row after you leave two stitches then make an increase, the next you leave three stitches then make an increase and so on, leaving one more stitch between increases every row.

    So if you make more increases than this in each row, your 'circle' becomes more and more wavy.

    So I thought I'd have a go. And the standard pattern which you come across says that you should do one stitch, then do two in the next stitch, ie making an increase every other stitch. Now if you know the pattern for circles, you will immediately see that if you follow this for your second round, you are actually doing less stitches than you should do to make a flat circle, the third row will be the same as for a flat circle, and to be honest the fourth doesn't look much different.

    I was getting a bit frustrated and thought I was doing something wrong when I'd done three or four rows and nothing much seemed to be happening. Until I came across a little throw away comment on one site which said: 'You won't notice much different until around the 6th row ....' Which meant that being the impatient person I am, I hadn't given the pattern long enough to develop!

    Ok I know I am impatient, so I decided that rather than the slower growing 'leave one, double one, leave one, double one' pattern I'd try doing a double stitch in each stitch of the previous row, to see what happened. And you can see what happened in the pics above.

    All of these are done with standard double knitting wool and all of them have five rows of double crochets and a sixth row of single crochet edging. 

    I am very pleased with them and they should go into my finished piece nicely. But I am going to do some more experimenting, varying the number of single stitches, and yarns.

This last pic shows one of my first experiments. This uses a yarn which is thick and thin and varigated. And in this one I used the standard pattern of one single, one double on a crochet chain, but working up one side, around the end and back down the other side. I did three rows of double crochets, but in the third row I did two stitches in each stitch around the ends, then the 4th row in single crochet, two stitches in each stitch.

    I was after something that looked a bit like a sea slug and am quite please with the result.

Incidentally isn't it annoying when people start every sentence with 'so,' I shall be really glad when this fashion is dropped, the same as that inflection which sends the end of every sentence up, so it sounds like whoever you are talking to is continually asking questions instead of making a statement:

'So, I have a cup of tea?'