Wednesday, December 13, 2017

THE FEATHER IN DISGUISE





 This feather is indeed in disguise.
Behind the feathered mask lays the
CHEVRON  STITCH
Yes folks the chevron stitch is the makings of this fine feathered feather.
 And the back bone/spine of the feather is a triple crochet that is made 2 rows below the row you are working on and is worked into the front post of that stitch, giving the over all effect of the rachis part of the feather. There is just 1 more little trick in the making of this crochet feather and that is by the time you get to the second row of dc's you work them into the back loop of the dc st. Oh yeah, of course there is the shaping of the tip of the feather, but that's just increasing less st's over a few rows and your done.
Lets make this crocheted feather together by following some simple picture tutorials.
Every picture tells a story right?
These are almost the same as a story, but in the form of an easy to follow along picture pattern!

Materials needed:
Your choice of yarn and hook
the sky is the limit, fly free
with color and yarn choices 

 The fun begins with chains and slip st's
Next we begin the chevron pattern, we need an extra ch 3, that counts as the 1st dc of this row, then increase in the 4th ch from the hook by adding 2 more dc's, make 3 dc's over the next 3 ch's, then dc 3 ch's together for the decrease.
The first part of the spine will be just a dc into the top sl st, when you have more rows you'll do the front post triple crochet instead.
The you basically repeat what you just did in the reverse order for this side.
Finish off this row with the increase of 3 dc's into the last ch, turn.
EVERY STITCH MADE (apart from the center st) IS NOW
WORKED INTO THE BACK LOOPS ONLY.
Chain up 3 and work an increase of 2 dc's into the 1st dc of this row. 1 dc into each of the next 3 dc's, then the decrease again, dc dec the next 3 st's together.
Now for our first front post triple crochet, but it's only 1 row below as we only have 1, but after this it will always be made 2 rows below the row you are working on. A little trick I learned here after the triple, was to count from the last stitch of the row and back to where I now wanted to do the dc dec over 3 st's,  starting with the 7th, 6th and 5th st's, because that middle stitch can get mixed up with that count, so that way made it easy peasy!
Picture 20 tells us that we have now made enough rows to do our front post triple in the middle st of 2 rows below, yay, finally.
The crochet feather is beginning to look more like a feather now.


Continue working the chevron stitch
for your desired length.
To shape the top of the feather,
you will only do a ch 3 and 1 dc in the first dc of the row, the middle section remains the same and finish the row with only 2 dc in the last stitch.
Onto the next row and the stitch count changes 
so work as instructed in picture 24.

 Getting smaller as we go and less st's to work on, follow the instructions in the pictures.
When you get to the final row, picture 28, decrease over all stitches,
ch 3, dc dec the 2 dc's, triple dec the front post triple, dc dec the last 3 st's all in one.You will have 7 loops on your hook and sl st to close them all.

 Now you get to sew in all the loose ends and make more.
Make some more, make some short ones and long ones and hang them ready for flight.