Border

[Stargazerlily]

Hello,

I am trying to find a way to incorporate this photo’s (embroidered) diamond border at the bottom of a crochet sweater.  Is there a way to do this through colour changes or would it be better to crochet black diamonds and use the contrasting colour to sew them together?  Any advice or links to patterns/tutorials/stitch encyclopedias would be much appreciated!  Or if you can suggest keywords or search terms I could use to find a way to do this would be great!

Thanks for reading!

[Granny Square]

This might be a good candidate for tapestry crochet, which is super easy, and I'm only seeing a max of 2 colors in any given row.  Oh wait, 3 in the bottom diamond area, but still not impossible with this technique.

Or, since the pattern is pretty linear, surface slip stitch, which is like embroidery with a crochet hook, where you'd make it all in black and stitch the lines on.

I would use a finer yarn, like fingering weight, if you are attaching to a fabric garment like this.

 

 

[BPokorny]

It won't like exactly the same but you may be able to get something similar using the plan pooling method. I found these on Pinterest.  Red Heart yarn has several different colorways that were made to work with this technique. First link is Marly Bird. She's the ambassador for Red Heart so her site explains their yarn.

most common is the argyle pattern   https://www.pinterest.com/pin/542472717616319286/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AeRM8t2RdST7BqEyPc2ssYYeo3Q3BV4_zYbrxHIV7J7cgTC6QilZeRE/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/505810601884740889/

 

[BPokorny]

Another thought. The Tapestry technique that Granny Square mentioned above can be felted very easily and will give you that more blended look in the photo

[Stargazerlily]

9 hours ago, Granny Square said:

This might be a good candidate for tapestry crochet, which is super easy, and I'm only seeing a max of 2 colors in any given row.  Oh wait, 3 in the bottom diamond area, but still not impossible with this technique.

Or, since the pattern is pretty linear, surface slip stitch, which is like embroidery with a crochet hook, where you'd make it all in black and stitch the lines on.

I would use a finer yarn, like fingering weight, if you are attaching to a fabric garment like this.

 

 

Thank you!  I spent the afternoon watching the videos from your links and more I found along the way.  I am learning so much!  I also found a chart with diamonds so I think I might be able to try this tapestry crochet to make this work after all.  I will post a photo if I succeed

[Stargazerlily]

30 minutes ago, BPokorny said:

It won't like exactly the same but you may be able to get something similar using the plan pooling method. I found these on Pinterest.  Red Heart yarn has several different colorways that were made to work with this technique. First link is Marly Bird. She's the ambassador for Red Heart so her site explains their yarn.

most common is the argyle pattern   https://www.pinterest.com/pin/542472717616319286/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AeRM8t2RdST7BqEyPc2ssYYeo3Q3BV4_zYbrxHIV7J7cgTC6QilZeRE/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/505810601884740889/

 

Thank you for these links!  What a great video tutorial from Repeat Crafter Me.  I had never heard of this pooling method before and it is fascinating.  What a beautiful fabric it creates.

I will try a swatch using the tapestry and think about the felting idea if it seems too loose.  A lot of the sweater patterns I am finding don’t use single crochet, so felting might be just the solution.

I appreciate your advice!!

[BPokorny]

Tapestry is a very tight and dense fabric because you crochet over the color that you are not using. Plan Pooling is fun once you get it going but can be so frustrating to start but stick with it. I'm glad I was able to get you heading in a possible solution. Good Luck and please show us how you made out

 

[Granny Square]

Planned pooling is very cool, but as you said it is tricky because it's dependent on a strictly limited range of personal stitch tension for the patterns to come out right, and the patterns are limited.  It would not work if she wanted to exactly duplicate this pattern. 

Tapestry the same thickness as stranding the yarn behind the work as you would with ordinary colorwork, I don't find it tighter; it might depend on a person's individual stitch tension.  If you think about the structure of a HDC, it's only slightly taller than a SC but it has more yarn involved in the stitch than SC with a single strand running under it.  One can intentionally make tapestry stiff/tight by using a smaller hook or stiffer material for a tote bag for instance, but I've used the technique in yarn for garments and it worked fine--this was a while ago, and probably sport weight yarn.   The thickness factor is why I recommended a finer weight yarn, you wouldn't want a worsted weight yarn in any stitch pattern to edge dress fabric.

Edit, planned pooling also depends on a very specific stitch count--the chances of a pooling pattern working exactly across the width of the skirt hem are pretty slim--and you can't fudge it or you loose the pooling.  IF the pooling pattern was an appropriate width for a dress hem, the OP would have to know how to sew her own clothes, and make the edging first, then engineer the dress skirt to fit the edging.  On the other hand, fudging (if necessary) a non-pooling colorwork pattern repeat to fit is relatively easy. 

Edited March 2, 2020 by Granny Square

[BPokorny]

Granny Square.

She did NOT ask how to design the dress. She was asking for suggestions on the border ONLY.

There are all kinds of patterns that can be done with plan pooling which is why I provider her with some link to start to discover it. And when you start to LEARN how to do this technique it explains how to pick to right type of variegated yarn patterns. As I mentioned above RED HEART YARN has made several colorways that work for plan pooling.

Please UPDATE your knowledge of Tapestry Crochet. It is done in mostly in single crochet and the yarn NOT being used is worked OVER by the color being used. It makes a very dense Fabric.  Once again here is the video from Ellen Gormley who is/was one of the experts on Knit and Crochet Today show. She's the past editor of Crochet Magazine! and is a Professional Designer of Go Crochet and Author of several published books and patterns.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=difference+between+tapestry+and+intaaia+crochet&view=detail&mid=15B0691CB402E3FD1DEB15B0691CB402E3FD1DEB

 

[Granny Square]

I have been crocheting for over half a century and I understood every point you made, and have done every technique mentioned (except planned pooling patterns) but I think you missed points I was trying to make--perhaps I could have worded them more clearly. 

The planned pooling patterns I've seen only vaguely resemble the very specific pattern that the OP wishes to replicate.  My comments about having to make a dress to fit was not a suggestion that the OP should do so, it was meant to underscore the point that an existing planned pooling pattern would be harder to fit to a specific measurement needed for an existing dress, than would designing a pattern using graph paper and swatching to create the exact pattern she wants to get it to fit the dress hem exactly.

As to the anatomy of a tapestry stitch, as I said above I have done tapestry projects, some in garments and in more than 2 colors, so I understand how it's made--I was trying to emphasize that in my experience tapestry is not tight, that tapestry (as I described, "SC with a single strand running under it" ) was less dense than a HDC stitch.  

 

 

[Stargazerlily]

3 hours ago, Granny Square said:

I have been crocheting for over half a century and I understood every point you made, and have done every technique mentioned (except planned pooling patterns) but I think you missed points I was trying to make--perhaps I could have worded them more clearly. 

The planned pooling patterns I've seen only vaguely resemble the very specific pattern that the OP wishes to replicate.  My comments about having to make a dress to fit was not a suggestion that the OP should do so, it was meant to underscore the point that an existing planned pooling pattern would be harder to fit to a specific measurement needed for an existing dress, than would designing a pattern using graph paper and swatching to create the exact pattern she wants to get it to fit the dress hem exactly.

As to the anatomy of a tapestry stitch, as I said above I have done tapestry projects, some in garments and in more than 2 colors, so I understand how it's made--I was trying to emphasize that in my experience tapestry is not tight, that tapestry (as I described, "SC with a single strand running under it" ) was less dense than a HDC stitch.  

 

 

Hi again,

Wow, the level of expertise on this forum is amazing.  Thank you both, Granny Square and BPokorny for your advice and for helping me learn these new techniques I had never heard of.  As a mom of two young boys who works full-time, it is challenging for me to find time to join a crochet/knitting circle where I could ask these kinds of questions.  Without forums like this one and Knitting Paradise, I would have probably long given up on many a project!  
Thanks again for taking the time to read and respond to my question.  I will post a picture if I manage to create something 😊

[Granny Square]

You're welcome, and please do post a pic in 'show and tell' when you get this done!

I won't deny that there will be a little swatching first, because the first thing you need to do to plot your design is to figure out how many stitches you have to work with around the skirt to plot it on, so you can plot how many repeats of the pattern, how many stitches per repeat, etc.

If you are familiar with spreadsheets and have a spreadsheet program, you can set up your cells to be square and play with your design by coloring in cells (this is what I do on the odd occasion I plot out a design, the copy/paste comes in handy).  If not, plain old-tech graph paper & pencil works great and you can download/print graph paper.

A hint, if something doesn't come out exactly right in matching the pattern around the skirt, line up the mismatch spot under 1 or both of the side seams of the fabric skirt .  People expect to see fabric with repeating patterns lining up at the seams, but with minor truncations of repeated motifs, so it won't look out of place to see a 'seam' there.  (Example, if you are only 1-2 stitches off on the whole skirt, I'd put it on 1 seam line.  If you are off a significant portion, like half a repeat, I'd consider splitting the mismatch over the 2 seam lines).

 

 

Edited March 3, 2020 by Granny Square