Fiber Monday 20

So, I settled on a cabled pumpkin because I'm insane, but also because I really love treble crochet stitches.

What's a treble crochet? It's a three-part stitch! I'll show you how!

Now, as for cabling, that's the fun part - it's all about crosses and runs. Again, I'll show you.

Step one is to determine how wide you want your pumpkin to be (how many ribs will it have?) and then we'll do some basic math.

One rib = 12 stitches across (3, cable [6], 3).

I wanted a 9 rib pumpkin, so that's 108 stitches across! That's a lot of stitches!

That's all 108 stitches, chained out as usual.

Our next step is to make our first row. We'll be doing this by making 3 half-double crochet stitchs (hdc) followed by 6 double crochet (dc) stitches, followed by 3 more hdc. The pattern would therefore look like this:

ch 108
1) *(hdc 3, dc 6, hdc3) repeat from * across.

You should end with three hdc.

To form your hdc, you wrap your yarn around your hook and insert it into the 3rd chain from the hook. 

Then you wrap your yarn around the hook again and pull it through the chain.

Here are your three loops that you should have!

Now you're going to wrap your yarn again and...

pull it through all three loops! Congrats, that's your first hdc!

To make the other two hdc, just wrap around once and put through the next chain and repeat the process.
When you have three hdc, you want to wrap your yarn once and proceed to the next chain.

A dc is much like an hdc, but there's just a little more to it!
Pull your yarn through the stitch so you have three loops like before.

Wrap your yarn again, just like you're making another hdc...

But only pull it through the first two loops!

Wrap your yarn again and pull it through the last two loops and you'll have your dc!

Now make 5 more dc and 3 more hdc!
There is your first rib!
hdc 3, dc 6, hdc 3.
Now do that for the length of the chain!

And here's your fancy first row!

Things get a little weird after this point.

You're going to chain 2 and hdc in the first three hdc of the next row.

Then you'll skip the first three dc - don't worry, we'll come back to them!

Wrap your yarn twice around your hook, then kinda slide it behind the 4th dc.
The stitch should be in front of your hook like so.
This is called bptc (back post treble crochet).

Wrap your yarn and pull back through the stitch so you have 4 loops.

Wrap and pull through 2 (3 loops on hook)

Wrap and pull through 2 (2 loops on hook)

Wrap and pull through 2 (1 loop on hook).
Repeat for the next 2 dc.

Now that you have three slanted back-post trebles, you're going to want to go back to that first dc and repeat the pattern! Bptc in each of the three dc you skipped.

It looks ugly and confusing here, but I promise it's worth it!

See how it crosses in front of the first bptc we made?
That's how we get the braided effect of a proper cable!

And here's all six tc done with three hdc afterwards to wrap it up!
First cross of the first cable complete!

Now do that for the rest of your row!

In written terms, this line appears like this:
*(hdc 3, skip 3 dc, tc 3, return to skipped dc, tc 3, hdc 3 in next 3 hdc) repeat from *

So now that we have a cross, you'll probably notice some gapping behind the crossed tc! Well, that's not gonna hold stuffing (and we'll be stuffing this pumpkin!), so we'll have to close it off somehow.

The best way I've found is to make your turning ch2 and hdc in the first 3 hdc of the next row, then go back to the ends we dropped with the bptc. It'll look really weird and might be hard to get the hang of at first, but once you do it, you'll probably be able to keep track. You can use stitch markers (like a safety pin or an earring without its mate or a twist tie if you don't own specific stitch markers) to keep track of what you'll be putting your new dc into!

It will kinda look like there are two tops to the row - you want the one behind the bptc.
Not the one on top of the bptc.
Make 6 dc in these stitches.

And follow that up with an hdc in the next 3 hdc.

Here's a clearer picture!
Not shown are the tops of the bptc, which you can use to count to where you need to come back in with the hdc!
Basically, hdc the first three, then dc in the lower tops, count out your six bptc, then come back in with your next 3 hdc.

The back of your piece will kinda look like this once you're done with the whole row.

I don't actually know how to write this part out! If anyone can come up with better notation than me, feel free to write it out in my comments!

Now that's not our cable's first run, that's our backing. Our first run is next.

Chain 2 (turning chain), then hdc in the first 3 hdc, bptc in the posts of your previous bptc, straight across, then hdc into the next 3 hdc.
ch2 *(hdc 3, bptc in bptc, hdc 3) repeat from * to end.

Here's our run!

A closeup of the run shows the distinctive braided/crossed over shape of a cable!
And that's our first cross and run!

Now, of course, you'll still want to make another backing row over this, much like the first one. It's even easier to notice this row, though, because now there are 3 sets of tops, and you only want the middle ones!

This kinda looks inappropriate in real life, but I've flipped the first layer of backing down so it's easier to see the middle section.
You're going to do all dc in these middle rows with hdc on either side.
Again, count your latest bptc tops to make sure when to come back in with the hdc!
ch2 *(hdc in hdc, dc in middle section of tops, hdc 3)

You kinda end up with these pockets on the back. These will block our stuffing from all coming out!

This is the back of our project!

And here's the front.
You can kinda see one of the backing flaps at the end there!

A closeup of our backed cable!

Now you're going to want to repeat the rows in this order:

Cross
Backing
Run
Backing

And if you keep that up, you'll eventually make your way up in length. In real life, my first cross/backing/run/backing run has given me a piece that is 1" to 1.5" tall, That's not much. If I want a 13" tall pumpkin, my early estimate is that I'll need 9 more of these combos (if not a full 13!) That could take a while!

Keep coming back on Mondays to see my progress! If I'm right, we'll be doing a lot more sewing on this project!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC