Changing thread size on chair doily

[Yorkie]

Greetings,

I have an old 1940 chair doily with a horse design. The pattern used a size 12 steel crochet hook and #50 cotton thread. Size 13 x 16".

This is way too small a gauge for me to see! I want to change the pattern to a #10 cotton crochet thread and a size #7 steel hook. (or the proper size for that thread) to make the pattern more eye friendly.

 

The piece originally stated 291 beginning chains for a piece measuring 16" across the back. Of course I can't do that many chain stitches, yet when I count the "blocks" in the pattern, which are double crochets, I tried 96 blocks, the horse doesn't come out exactly right, the pattern doesn't quite jive.

 

What do I need to adjust in the pattern to make it work? Is there a formula to use in general when using larger threads and hooks?

Thanks for your help. :-)

[magiccrochetfan]

Welcome to the ville

 

In order for the design to come out right, you have to maintain the blocks and spaces that make it up. So really all you can do is follow the chart with your larger thread and hook, it will look the same but be much larger.

 

But you could pull out parts of the pattern and do them as a separate chunk. If there is a lot of blank space around the horse you could eliminate some of that.

 

I suppose if the chart is really detailed, you could redraw it to condense four squares into one, that might look OK.

[Yorkie]

Thanks for the welcome!!

 

So if the piece has 96 chains on the chart. How many do I need to make the beginning chain, twice that amount? The horse does have some roses around it and some blank spaces. I'm not that good with graphs yet to redesign. I just wanted to keep the pattern but have the right amount of chains in the beginning to make it work.

 

Thanks!

[magiccrochetfan]

does the chart show chains?  Usually they look like graph paper, showing blocks that are either empty (open mesh) or filled (solid block). You have to count the blocks to know how many to chain to start with .   One block will be 3 chains, and 1 more chain at the end for the closing stitch.  

 

in case you have not done filet before:  filet basics http://crochet.about.com/library/weekly/aa050298.htm  the part about shared stitches is unneccessarily confusing but otherwise this gives an overview.  actually maybe this is better http://www.hassdesign.com/BasicFiletTechniques/

 

Also for your beginning chain, i would definitely make 10% or so extra to cover any coounting errors, then unravel the extra sts later.  

[Yorkie]

Yes the pattern does have open and filled meshs.

Tried to make starting chain about third smaller than original and all went well till fifth row where dc didn't sync with previous row. :/

 

I'm getting close but I don't want a chair back that's more than 17". If I add more starting chains this thing would be huge! Lol

 

There's not a formula that works for all patterns when you go to larger thread sizes like #10 huh?

 

I'll keep trying.....

[magiccrochetfan]

Maybe I don't understand what you are trying to do.  in order to keep the design, you have to have the same arrangement of meshes and blocks.  You can't just start with a different number of units and somehow cram in the same design.  You could REDRAW the design to condense it and make a new chart for yourself.  

 

Here is a different idea http://crochet.about.com/library/nceylonrosefilet.htm

toward the bottom, it shows the design embroidered onto a single crochet background.  Maybe that would work for translating your design.  

[Granny Square]

I will add another filet site that is excellent http://www.smartcrochet.com/lesson1.shtml  There are several pages, this is page 1.

 

With #10 thread, you will indeed have a huge piece, probably at least 2x the original.  I think you are going to have to go the embroidery route, which will be smaller but you could add a border around perhaps.  Another thought - does this pattern also have pieces that are meant for the arms of the chair?  Maybe you could just do the arm, or arm plus border.

 

You said "The piece originally stated 291 beginning chains....yet when I count the "blocks" in the pattern, which are double crochets, I tried 96 blocks, the horse doesn't come out exactly right".  .  A mesh is not 1 dc, it is 3 dc, or 2 chains and 1 dc (there are other meshes, lacet is a common one, but these are the basics).  If you worked the chart as 1 dc or 1 chain per grid, you would get a very tall skinny horse (or, more likely something not very recognizable).  291 chains is 96 meshes, if the first row is solid meshes--divide by 3 is 97, but the extra 3 is the 1 extra 'anchor' stitch that filet requires.

 

By the way, please pass over any tutorials that contain the words 'share stitches'.  That is an optical illusion, simply not true, and is as confusing as teaching a kid to count to ten as :1,2,3,3,4,5,6,6,7,8,9,9,10.  Pet peeve of mine, sorry.  The Smart Crochet site does a good job of explaining that illusion.