crochet experiment

[piranha]

pentagon bowl after suzette haden elgin's description in her LJ.

 

*ack*, once i switch into rich text mode here i can no longer switch back (as in, the link to facilitate it doesn't work anymore in mozilla).  that is annoying.  but why am i using mozilla anyway; it's my own fault that i haven't adjusted this system to my own preferences.

anyway.  i had this leftover yarn and used it to try out this bowl shape thing.  from the description in suzette's LJ i couldn't quite figure out how the topology worked, so i crocheted the first 6 pentagons and put them together.  that's quite a nice shape; the pentagons' upper edges curl over.  i gather that her other 6 are just to stiffen the structure, and since i want to felt (full, really) this, i won't bother.  though i guess one could make two layers and have the inner one be a different colour; that would be cool.

as it is, the bowl has a bit of that tacky granny crochet thing going for it that i don't appreciate, you know, the stuff that finds its excesses in frilly toiletpaper cozies.  bigger hook, looser tension and different colouring should do away with that though.

this could make a funky hat, if one added rectangular strips between the centre and outside pentagons.  or made the centre one smaller and shaped the strips so one got a bellflower shape.

Comments

[kmd.livejournal.com]

this could make a funky hat,

Exactly what I was thinking when I saw it. v cool

[firecat]

Hat!

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

It's interesting, because I tend to feel my crochet is getting too granny when I use a larger hook and get looser tension.

I'm with you on getting the colours right, though.

[pperiwinkle.livejournal.com]

So, my question, when I read Suzette Haden Elgin's description, and now again that I see your crochet bowl is what does one do with a crochet bowl?

At my house I would mostly rescue it from the OCD Aussie until I got tired of telling her it was not a toy and tucked it away in drawer somewhere, but what would someone normal do with one?

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i don't know that i qualify as normal. :)

umm, put stuff in it? i don't mean to insult your intelligence, but maybe you just didn't think of it because this crochet bowl looks particularly crooked and unappealing at this stage. also, too small to be of much use. :) but in general crochet bowls can be used like most other bowls, with the advantage of being softer. they can be made to be quite firm, if felted or made with several strands of yarn (or doubled as suzette does it, i presume); they'll stand up and hold their form just fine then. i have several that i use as storage for tidbits when i don't use them as hats. i keep some of the yarn that i like looking at out in the open, and crochet/knit/felted bowls are much better for that than baskets. they're washable, which can come in useful (especially after an OCD aussie got ahold of them). they can be made in many shapes, sizes, and colours, to match one's interior design (should one be a person to do such a thing).

i want to make a fairly large but shallow one to replicate the work bowl i saw elise using at farthingparty -- great for keeping one's work (beads and wire in her case, but could also be freeform crochet, or anything that requires bits and pieces for assembly; heck, lego :) in one's lap when one's sitting around in the company of other people but likes doing something with one's hands meanwhile. it'll be sturdy enough to sit on one's lap without losing shape, but soft enough to adjust to one's legs sufficiently to not slide off, and to fold together and pack away complete with contents when one's done.

that's not to mention the ones made from fine cotton yarn to create a filigree, and then treated with a size so they stand up, which are a granny thing and i don't much like them. they're mostly decorative little things, like this one: http://image61.webshots.com/61/9/23/23/426192323KnkujK_ph.jpg