Pixel Perfect Crochet: Gauge Matters

 I often stumble on the best solutions through much trial and error but, in the past, have foregone sharing it because… it’s obsessive, lost on my audience, pick your situation of fizzled-out attempts. However, over time, I’ve learned that people often light up because these little obsessions of mine are often information that doesn’t exist in totality and the three or four research topics I combined to create this unified, though niche, concept are often more in demand than I realize. Or like I love to counter ‘you’re never the only one’; act as if you’re looking for your fellow weirdlings!

To the point, I wanted to create pixel perfect crochet for my nephew’s next birthday gift. I’ve use sc with some success before but I’ve never bothered to use gauge, despite the fact the professionals abide by it for the legitimacy of their patterns. In my case up to now, I have always created patterns where the other elements or results are not skewed or ‘wrong’ without gauge. Even the pattern I’m working on that will feature the measurements I used for the structure will come with the instructions to work the stitch as it looks best for you, then run the easy calculations accordingly. The pattern would actually be needlessly complex if gauge was strict, considering I don’t know the exact measurements their cardboard structure will end up with but you can adjust your numbers accordingly. Math IS more complex for some, but for others, strict gauge is the tougher sell. In order to balance the skill level I’m proposing I want the user to have the freedom to crochet comfortably; simple math gives them much more freedom to successfully cover their structure.

I use this example because it’s important to express that, despite my knowledge of gauge, it hasn’t been an important component. When I wish to achieve ‘perfection’, it does not mean you use every tool in the box. It means you carefully decide the simplicity/complexity of the task by selecting the tools you believe best accomplish the job. Some will insist I can take shortcuts, others will accuse me of oversimplifying and needing more info. In every case, I have two questions: what do you think you need to understand it and after I explain it, which part could be added to the pattern to clarify without adding more confusing complexity? Annnnd I sidetracked a bit, but I wandered a bit because gauge is one of those things I have been pestered about but am willing to provide why it wasn’t necessary to achieve a successful finished project. Also to reiterate, I am very aware of it and do ask from the onboarding if it is a tool I need.

Pixel perfect crochet stitches is one that need it without exception and I’ll show and tell the way though this. To start the gauge standards are 4x4” and this was the aim throughout.

If you wish for a TL;DR, skip ahead to the Pixel Perfect Swatch subheading and I’ll include one of the special notes necessary there as well.

The Journey

To start off, I used the standard H (5.0 mm) crochet hook and 4 Medium yarn. Ch 16, single 15, ch 1, turn. Proper gauge means you can gently flatten it against the ruler without stretch to reach the 4” mark. A couple stitches short by eye so I unraveled and added two chains to reach 18. So sc count was 17, and once established, easily rested in the gauge.

Though we were good to go but the goal is to make stitch height SQUARE so that my row and column counts would be equal. This means after 17 rows, I should make the perfect square…

Unfortunately after reaching row 17, the tight but easy tension of a standard sc just seemed to fall about 3 rows short. Pixel perfect it was not.

Slightly taller, maybe more texture? I knew hdc was the next best best for a taller stitch so the start was the same: H hook, 18 ch, 17 sc. but alas…

From a glance you can see more height and more texture which should’ve clued me in; too much height and I wasn’t fond of the ‘banded look’ which was not a feature of old school gaming so much as a shitty CRT/RF (ch3/4) adapter reality of the 80s. The goal is an artistic take on a beloved game and it’s not nostalgic or likely even that interesting for my nephew like it might be for someone my age so, next.

I found a stitch referred to as single crochet cross stitch because of the way it looks in rounds; like an X. However it would not visually work for turned work but I was curious. Same parameters as before but this stitch (which I personally called power move single crochet or PMS stitch. Heh.) involves what she called ‘yarn under instead of over’ but to me looked more like giving the power move to the hook and was easier remembered as a hook OVER step. But alas, row 17 got me a little more height but was still falling short of that ideal square.

Getting there but no. It was a little extra work for a look that most people wouldn’t even see that slight difference in. But I had other ideas based off of these swatches…

Finally, I decided to switch to an E (3.5 mm) hook and added only one extra chain to reach the 4” mark. Mental math told me I was about to gain just a smidge more height if I was guessing correctly as well as an additional row. (18 sc so 18 rows to reach the goal of a square stitch).

Crocheting too loose would relax the horizontal measurement and I’d lose the advantage of the tighter loops of a smaller hook so this is where I aimed for height and tension. Not the best pic, but the idea was to ‘trust the hook’, keep the yarn over snug but slack just enough to make the hook rest parallel to the top of the previous stitch (just over the ch 1 starting the row), twist hook and pull through. Added height without loosening the width…

Note that I held below the working stitch to keep it taut and not raising with the taut but slackened loops. The creation of a controlled gap and controlled tension in a vertical maneuver is often a technique that advanced crocheters use for those long triple and longer stitches and is giving me just the slightest height without risking a slight widening. As a crochet anatomy tip, this is something that is maintained no matter how you stretch the finished work; keep your base entry tight and your towering chains will not limp out later. This also applies to strengthening the peaks; finish with tight chains or create a strong single crochet foundation for more rows to come.

And now the finale. I was devastated to see that my 18th row landed me at 3.75”. However, I wasn’t defeated; I went ahead and remastered the horizontal: 3.75”! So in trying not to widen it and effectively heightening the stitches, I actually managed to tighten the width and accomplish then perfect square. I  made sure the swatch was still relaxed, measured again to confirm and then gently stretch tested to confirm both directions had the same give and would not contort later.

Success, at last!

I already know; pics or it didn’t happen. I would do a video if I didn’t have my cat sleeping on my lap but it’s the real deal so… onto the TL;DR…

Pixel Perfect Swatch

The quick and easy is this: E (3.5 mm) hook, controlled snug tension (with listed exception) ch 19, sc 18, ch 1, turn. Exception; after base entry, y/o, pull through, hold at base to draw up slack so hook is rest above starting chain or previous stitch, parallel, yarn over and pull straight along the parallel.

This makes all the difference if you skipped ahead of the why. Finishing gauge will not be the 4x4” but 3.75x3.75”, but this means the stitches are indeed square and ‘pixel perfect’.

Conclusion

Ew. I just felt like I was writing a college paper again. But this lets the vultures pick the meat and wander off again while I add a few more notes and thoughts. This can likely be done with different hooks, yarn and stitches. Absolutely experiment and even share with your fellow weirdlings, scraping through the wasteland of internet misinformation to unearth some gems. In my case, I wanted this gauge to work for a cushion design so small stitches with fewer holes and limited stretch were my personal goal. This will give large projects a higher ‘resolution’ for your goal yet be small enough to get recognizable visual pixels in smaller projects. Want to go mini? Bust out the thin steel hooks and crochet thread. Jumbo aspirations? Grab those hilarious S and larger hooks and super jumbo blanket yarns and get to it! I’d love to add to the pixel perfect search over time but this will be a good medium for all ages. Some of our veterans just can’t see or hold those itty-bitty wonders or fatigue wrestling the anaconda-like proportions of the other end. 

Remember; do your test swatch. There are subtleties that must be experienced and it will develop the muscle memory to be consistent through the project. Get your rows and columns at the same number and at the same measurements and you can contribute to the search for great crochet pixel art!

Omg, shoes

Yes, I did more work on the doll boots today. Today, I painted and glued the cork to the base of the feet today. There are some visible seams, which I'll probably just clean up with more glue and silver paint once this glue cures. For now:

So they're coming along well enough...

I've ordered a cutting board for my Xacto knife since I kinda sorta left a couple of gashes on my dad's kitchen table when I cut the clay for the shoulder piece. Oops. But the board is coming and I'll be laying down Saran Wrap over it to work on the breastpiece. I need to roll it pretty thin so I don't want to stretch it when I peel it up. Not too thin, just not as thick as I did for the shoulder guards. Yeah, I can sand everything down as needed, but I don't want to spend hours drying and sanding clay because I was *too* careful. I have plenty of the clay in case I need to redo anything.

Hoping to work on more doll stuff over the weekend. I'd also like to cut and sew the boot cuffs, get the boots done this weekend if possible. I don't have a plan for the hip guards yet, so that part will probably wait yet another weekend, but I might be tempted to at least try an idea or two. Once everything is all painted up in the armor department, I'd like to start bejeweling those.

The sword is what I'm least confident about. I have two blocks of wood to carve, fit and paint into what I hope resembles a fitting sword. I've never done wood carving so I might be chipping away at it for longer than the rest.

Oh! I need to do the arm bands too so that might get done when I'm doing cuffs. It will use the same fabrics I've used for the boots anyway. That covers most of it. There will also be small details like her barrette, a pouch and some buckles but I'll be planning those after the big pieces are done. Sometimes, you just have to see the big picture before the details make sense.

So this weekend: boots (with cuffs), arm guards, breastplate. A good mix of waiting for clay to dry while sewing. See how that goes and do more if there's time.

Now, this girl needs sleep. Keeping busy is tiresome work!

Project Updates

Just some more pictures to share before I snuggle off to bed. My new girl got herself a wig:

I also worked on the doll boots for Rienna today. This involved a sort of moccasin stitching on the sole. I've cut some cork to glue on the bottom later. I'll be painting the cork silver first though.

bottom view of soles

boots with sewn bottoms

I know picture quality is kinda PBBBTTTT but I'm always snapping low light pics with my tablet in my dungeon of a bedroom. When I'm more awake, I might take the time to post a tutorial on how I'm doing these boots. Not that I'm an expert, but it might help someone else brave a DIY.

Last pic is the white clay mold of the shoulder guards.

Hoping I can work on the breastplate sometime this month, but it's tough picking a day where I can work on it. Or that the cats won't mess with it...

So that's all for now! Off to bed! I'll keep everyone updated on the projects when possible.

BJD Clothes: Swimsuit Part 1

This one might get broken up over time a bit, but I'll keep the tags going so they can be found easily.

For this one, I just took a PDF of a bathing suit I found and put it together in Illustrator then modified it. Rienna's body piece has three panels, dark blue on the sides of her body, light blue in the middle. The pattern I found only did the split panel in the front so I took the back pieces, split them and redrew them as separate pieces. It ended up looking something like this:

This, but with the right piece split.

Insofar, I've only cut the pattern pieces, pinned the pattern to the fabric and cut the pieces, so I can't show a finished product just yet. What comes next is a matter of fussing and altering to get the benefit of the stretchy fabric I'm using, as well as any difference between a doll's torso and the design being made for an actual person. I edited out the chest lining and I'm not using the piece at the top of the pattern either, the bottom lining, since a lining in a doll bathing suit is both way too extra and would deform the streamlined look I'm going for. The fabric I'm using is semi-transparent so if there's too much show-through, I do have a solid suit pattern and can reinforce it with a different fabric.

I guess, just in review, I can at least list off what else I have planned for the outfit. Plan may change but for now, the shoulder guards, breastplate, and hip plates will be modeled out of clay (trying both baking and air dry varieties). The sword may similarly be a clay sculpt, but I have decided on that yet. A cape with neck draping is probably the simplest element, to be done with blue velvet. I'm also making thigh high boots with rubber soles. As for the adornments to her outfit, I have an assortment of rhinestones and pearls so that part will just be on a whim. Also, still working on the wig, but I need to order more glue.

I'm also planning Talia, but so far, I've only planned her scarves, leotard and hair. Her design is meant to be simple but stunning, all fiery colors with only her eyes the hottest part of the flame- blue! I'm anxious to see it done, but in no hurry to throw it together since patience and precision is far more important than haste.

Will I be selling these? I've already been asked, but no, not my 'prototypes'. Once I'm confident in the build, I may be up for selling some customs, but for now, call this one purely a hobby. I tried to rush into making a business out of crochet and it nearly crushed my love for it. Having people back out and haggle and nag has made me seriously think out how I will sell my art and to whom. I keep my selling circle very small, limited to those who truly appreciate and understand the time and talent that goes into a great piece. I earned the right to call my work professional and one can call it arrogance, but let them. Hand-crafted pieces are treasures and the prices are a motivation to treat them all the more irreplaceable. Expect to pay a living wage for any craft you obtain.

In any case, I'll get to more blogging as I get it done. Hope you'll find it helpful or just enjoy the updates to the process!

Making BJD Wigs Part 2

I'll be adding pictures later, so if you're reading this early, you'll see some placeholders instead.

First off, my favorite of the wig cap experiments is... Power mesh with tacky glue and a layer of silicone sealant underneath. It's this wig cap that I started my first foray into hair wefting.

I used these premade synthetic hair wefts:

Aliexpress.com

Along with Saran Wrap, rubber bands and tacky glue. I also had a pair of bent tip tweezers to do some holding of the wefts.

But I'm already telling you; I'm going to do hot glue for the next one because the tacky glue just didn't hold the wefts very quickly so I did a lot of holding them into place until I was sure they'd hold enough to move to the next row.

Although I cut the long weft as I went, you may find it easier to precut the pieces ahead of time. For this wig, I did straight rows that began a gradual curve as they neared the crown. The rough edges meet where the bangs end and, to cover that, I am gluing in a braid over those edges (with hot glue).

To start, it's the regular drill of securing Saran Wrap to the base or head you're using. The wig cap goes over that.

The easiest way to describe the wefting is with a diagram I drew. The wavy lines are the row I built from the base of the neck to the crown. The jagged lines are the top head fillers. The dots are rows for bangs. The number of rows isn't a precise count but it gives you an idea of how the wefts were paid to build shape and cover the head.

I squeezed the glue in lines directly onto the cap and just laying the wefts carefully in place and holding them as needed...

So far I've only gotten everything glued down. I placed another piece of Saran Wrap, secured with a rubber band to both secure the last rows and keep anything from sticking to it while drying. We'll see if that was a good idea or not when it comes time to remove it and secure the braid. More pictures to come as I finish it up and see what I end up with. I don't expect a first try to be stellar but I've been open to the learning process coming with a few failures.

Be back with the results!

Making BJD Wigs Part One

It's been a while since I've blogged; not for any particular reason, just work and the boys starting school and time slipping by. But today, I started the process of making doll wigs so, as promised, I wanted to share the process.

I began making wig caps for my 1/3 Bomelon heads. This will work for any size head, but let's start with the supplies I'm using.

• Power mesh fabric (white or the skin tone of the head--you'll find this at craft stores and it's basically the stretchy material you find in swimsuits)
• Aleene's Turbo Tacky glue (you can use silicone based glues to make a nonskid wig, but I have silicone wig caps to do that. Wig caps are available on AliExpress)
• Rubber bands (any size is fine but make sure they fit snugly without over or under stretching)
• Popsicle sticks (some people like to use a throwaway paint brush, but I'll get into why I prefer these instead)
• Saran Wrap (you can use cheaper plastic wrap but I like the self stick properties of this brand)
• Doll head on the body or wig stand with the right dimensions

To start, tear off a piece of Saran Wrap large enough to cover the entire head. Drape it on as close to the head as possible, pulling it to the back and twisting it. You may choose to secure it further with a rubber band around the neck. 

Pull the power mesh fabric over the protected head or stand and secure with a rubber band from the base of the head to just over the bridge of the nose. Pull it as tautly as possible under the band. If there are any wrinkles, try to pull them towards the back of the head. Even with very strong glue, lumps at the hairline are difficult to disguise but usually unnoticeable at the back.

Begin spreading the glue liberally but not so thick that it starts to run. I like to use a Popsicle stick because it doesn't pull glue out of the fine mesh holes and I make about a one inch line on the stick, which covers more area. You'll want the glue to cover at least an inch past where you think you might draw the hairline.

Let dry overnight. Some impatient people attempt it 'when it dries' only to discover the underside near the plastic is sopping wet. You won't want to compromise the shape by peeling it off when not completely dry.

So I'll have to let it dry overnight. once it does, I'll peel it away from the plastic. Then, I'll place new plastic over the doll heads, replacing the cap and drawing the hair line with a fabric marker (otherwise known as a dressmaker's pen). The cap will be removed and I'll trim the wig into shape with fabric scissors.

After that, the fun will begin with wefting! For the first wig I'm doing, I'll be using synthetic wavy medium brown hair, about 15 cm in length, with a center part. I buy the wefts from AliExpress. It is recommended to use 3 100cm sets for a 1/3 head, so you'll likely only need two for a 1/4 head and one for 1/6 heads. That one is a bit tricky to simply describe so I'll try to take photos for example when I begin wefting.

The other wig I'm doing will be long, flaming red hair that will both have bangs and a ponytail, so I've had to research styling on those. Some people weft it for permanence, but I'd like a wig with more flexibility.

For gluing wigs, you can use the tacky glue or go with hot glue. You may not want to do hot gluing directly on your doll head without first protecting it with heat absorbent material or making sure the amount of heat can't warp or distort it. I'll be sticking with the tacky glue.

I'm not rushing into this project, so I can't promise daily posts, but they'll be properly tagged to find them easily when they're up. 

For those wondering why you might DIY wig caps rather than buy them pre made, I'll just add this. Unless you want a very standard shape, you need a nonstandard cap and a DIY lets you control features like mohawks, widow's peaks, sideburns etc. Depending on how complex the style, you'll want to work out which wefting techniques will let you hide how and where the hair is rooted.

See you on the next installment!