I am currently obsessed with this kind of crocheting that’s sort of a mix between the simplest crochet chain stitch and embroidery. I don’t actually know if it’s a legitimate crochet technique, but my version (if it is mine) suits me just fine. This is how I make my nintendo controller pouch, the dandelion fingerless gloves, and the details on the spiderman hat. I love it because it feels a lot like drawing.
Last night I stopped mid-project and gathered five different “leftover” yarns because I suddenly, absolutely needed to make a crochet peacock feather. I was originally intending to make a bunch of little ones to sew onto headbands (which I still want to do), but of course, with nearly all of my favorite crochet designs, I made the first one too huge. I started with a teeny navy circle and then just sort of shaped it to look like the multi-colored part of the feather. Then, knowing it was way too big, decided to attach it to a plain hat I made on the trip to La Push last weekend. THEN I got the idea that I could make the “feathery” part using my special cro-broidery technique.
A couple episodes of Bones later, and ta-da! This is a seriously unique hat, and I’m super proud of it. If you do a google search for “crochet peacock,” there’s nothing that looks like this! Now that doesn’t mean that there isn’t one NOT on google… but its a pretty good indication of uniqueness in my opinion.
I would LOOVE to know how you do this! I love this hat so much. Its beautiful.
I am terrible at writing patterns, since no one understands my instructions. I really wish I could explain how in an organized way – maybe I’ll make a video someday.
Here is an attempt: I start with a circle (the navy), and just single crochet around, increasing occasionally to get it into the shape. (I know that’s not helpful, I’m sorry!) When I add the light blue circle, the second one, I crochet into the center loop instead of the top of the stitch. The rest is just single crochet until it looks right (again, not helpful). Then, I place the thing onto the hat, or sweater, or wherever, and use my crochet hook to “embroider” the olive green parts. Most people use a yarn needle for this sort of thing, but I just use the crochet hook, because I’m weird. I don’t have a pattern for this, I just look at a picture of a peacock feather and sort of… freehand it. So every one turns out a little differently.