Balls and ovals are like the foundation of most amigurumi. When I first found the art of ami's I was fascinated with shapes and wanted to learn more about how they were created. Before that I only made flat objects like blankets and washcloths. I'm sure some of you understand.
Everything we've talked about up until now have gotten us ready for this part. We've already talked about making a magic loop (or crocheting in the second chain if you don't want the magic loop), crocheting in the round, and even circle increases. Now we're going to use those skills to talk about how you create ball and oval shapes.
(NOTE: Sorry I got behind but I will add pictures for this soon.)
Ball Shapes
Crocheting a ball shape seems so impossible when you don't understand how it's created, but it's actually quite simple. Knowing how it's line by line makeup will actually help you to get the shape you are looking for.Ok, the ball starts off with your magic loop and 6 single crochet. Every round after that will be increased by 6 single crochet evenly. So pay attention to the width of the circle you are creating. The ball will end up slightly smaller than the width of the circle.
Once the width is where you want it then count the number of rounds you have. If you have 6 rounds than you will need to do at least 6 rounds of single crochet's across before you start decreasing. Having the same amount of rounds of increases as the rounds of single crochets is what creates the ball shape.
Of course there are instances when you might want to do more rounds of single crochet to get a certain shape. For instance, I like to do about 2 more rounds of single crochet to get a nice voluptuous ball. LOL
Then come the decreases, and they are just worked opposite of the increases. You'll want to decrease evenly around, spacing them out every round like we talked about previously. You'll end with 6 decreases across. (We'll talk about how to effectively close up a hole on day 14.)
Oval Shapes
Now making an oval shape is no big deal and is only a matter of strategically adding some rounds of single crochet within the rounds of increases. How many rounds you add all depends on what shape you are going for and often takes some playing around.A basic oval shape can usually be achieved by working two rounds of even increases and then one round of single crochet. Of course, depending on how oval you want the shape to be you might want to work 3 rounds of increases between each round of single crochets, or even one round of increases between each round of single crochets. An oval will start to take shape once you start working those single crochet rounds, so you'll get a feel for the shape and width almost right away.
Don't be afraid to play around with the shape and tear something out if it's not working for you. Depending on how you want the shape to taper off at the bottom you'll want to work the same as the other side. if you are changing it then work it according to how that shape is made.
For instance, an egg is an oval shape on the top and a ball on the bottom. Each side would be worked according to how that shape is created. You might not need to work the same amount of single crochets in it, but that's according to the shape that needs to be created.
Pattern Breakdown
So I hope all this wording is making sense to you, but in case it's not then here are some pattern examples.Ball
Rnd 1: ML, 6 sc in loop
Rnd 2: inc in each of the 6 sts (that's 6 even increases added)
Rnd 3: (sc, inc) 6 times (that's 6 increases added, and so on)
Rnd 4: (2 sc, inc) 6 times
Rnd 5: (3 sc, inc) 6 times
Rnd 6: (4 sc, inc) 6 times
Rnd 7 - 12: sc around
Rnd 13: (4 sc, dec) 6 times
Rnd 14: (3 sc, dec) 6 times
Rnd 15: (2 sc, dec) 6 times
Rnd 16: (sc, dec) 6 times
Rnd 17: dec 6 times
FO, and your ball is done.
Oval
Rnd 1: ML, 6 sc in loop
Rnd 2: inc in each of the 6 sts (that's 6 even increases added)
Rnd 3: sc around
Rnd 4: (sc, inc) 6 times (that's 6 increases added, and so on)
Rnd 5: sc around
Rnd 6: (2 sc, inc) 6 times
Rnd 7 - 12: sc around
Rnd 13: (2 sc, dec) 6 times
Rnd 14: sc around
Rnd 15: (sc, dec) 6 times
Rnd 16: sc around
Rnd 17: dec 6 times
FO, and your oval is done.
Well that is the end of today and I hope it helped you to understand the makeup of these two shapes. Tomorrow we will be talking more about crocheting a cone shape, which isn't far off from today but I didn't want to overwhelm you with a lengthy post. See you then!
Happy crocheting,
~Chassity O.
No comments:
Post a Comment