amygurumi

Another month has flown by! For the September Ravelry swap, the theme was “fruits & vegetables”. I decided to make a little clementine with a flowering branch.

Branching is an easy and useful technique. There are two ways to create a branching effect: add a branch to the current round by crocheting in the back loop only or separating the current round into two branches. I used both methods for this project.

To create the little nub branch (where the blossom sits in the picture, simply decide how large of a branch you want to create. For example, let’s say you have a round of 24 stitches, and you’d like to make a branch that is 6 stitches in circumference. Crochet along until you get to where you’d like the branch to sit. Place a stitch marker into the next stitch. Crochet in the back loop only (the loop farthest from you) of this stitch and the following 5 stitches (6 sts total). Then crochet into the first of the 6 stitches (the stitch with the marker you just placed). Continue around this new mini-round until your branch reaches its desired size. To resume the main body, begin again by putting a loop on your hook with a slip stitch, then inserting your hook into the front loop where you began your little nub branch. Continue in the front loop for the next 5 stitches, then resume working in both stitches for the rest of the round.

To create the larger branch, you’ll divide the round. For example, let’s say you have a round of 24 stitches and you’d like to split it evenly into 2 branches of 12 stitches each. Place a stitch marker at the beginning of the round, and crochet into that stitch and the following 11 (12 stitches total). Make your next crochet into the first stitch of the round (where you just placed the stitch marker). Continue around this new mini-round until your branch reaches its desired size. Put a loop on your hook with a slip stitch, then insert the hook into the first stitch of the remaining 12 stitches and repeat. You now have 2 equal branches.

This second technique is commonly used for making the legs of a doll branch from its body, but you can also use it to create uneven branches (as illustrated with my tree branch above). Enjoy!

This entry was posted Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 11:05 am and is filed under Amigurumi, Tutorials. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.