A Crochet Applique Resistor Headband

Heidi Arjes designed an awesome Resistor Knit Hat and Headband for the March for Science.  We both are knitters, and didn't have a real option for crocheters to create our fun science designs.  When I released Spliced, a crochet chain applique GENEie headband I offered to create a resistor version to Heidi.  With her blessing, I filmed a video where I appliqued a crochet chain to form a resistor headband.

The headband base is 20" long and I created it following the Spliced instructions. I used KnitPicks Comfy Worsted Yarn in Marina (19 g, 42 yards) and Light Blue (3 g, 7 yards) on a size H (5.0 mm) crochet hook for this project. The beauty with these applique techniques is that you could do them on any knit or crochet hat, headband, bag, or really anything at all.  I created a 40" long chain in a contrasting cotton color for the applique.  This was such a great way to do some craftivism and stash bust at the same time.  

The right side pinned

The wrong side pinned

You could achieve a similar look if you used some short crochet pieces and then one really long chain, but I thought it was worth threading the crochet chain in and out of the piece to create the vertical lines.

When I secured the ends of the headband together, you almost can't tell where the join happened!

Here is the join in the top center of my head.  Would you have noticed if I didn't point it out?

At the March for Science, a dear friend of mine (who was a physics major) picked this headband out of my extras to wear.  I was very happy to send this off to someone who would appreciate it.  

Are you ready to make your own applique resistor headband?  Watch the video to find out exactly how I did this.  

Here is a list of the video contents in case you need to skip ahead to a particular part.  

• [0:00] Introduction 
• [1:13] Materials
• [2:03] Pulling the chain through the fabric to make the "Battery" graphic.
• [7:22] Laying out the rest of the resistor design
• [11:41] All pinned
• [11:58] Sewing down the crochet chain
• [15:22] Preparing to sew the headband edges togther
• [16:47] Conclusions

I'm getting into embroidery and applique for March for Science wear because I can make the base with little attention.  It is a bit faster and easier to construct for more crafters who are intimidated by colorwork and cables.  I LOVED the way the DNA from the crochet chain applique popped in Spliced.  I want to add this applique to things that aren't crochet or a knit base now!  I decided that I would also film a video of the DNA applique from the Spliced GENEie Headband.  Enjoy!

Here is the table of contents for the Spliced GENEie applique:

• [0:00] Introduction
• [0:51] Materials
• [3:04] Arranging the double helix backbone and pinning it down
• [11:03] Sewing down the crochet chain
• [16:52] Embroidering the base pairs
• [20:48] Joining the flat headband together and finishing the embroidery design at the seam.  
• [26:47] Conclusions

Crochet Dinosaur Appliques for Party Hats

Back before Rowdy's first birthday I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do for his birthday photoshoot.  I decided to keep many of the details similar to Lucky's cake smash, but Rowdy was going to have a Dinosaur birthday party.

I still had some of the crochet applique whale birthday hats that I made for Lucky's first birthday.  I was able to make these hats using the same color yarn as the turtle butt diaper cover Lucky wore for the smash cake.  The yarn colors were on backorder at KnitPicks and I didn't have time to wait, so I decided to try to match the colors with some food coloring.

Each miniskein I dyed was 6 g of worsted weight wool.  There was more than enough yarn for me to complete 6 applique dinosaurs.  

The Bronto and Steggy the Dino-Rawrs Applique crochet pattern is absolutey darling.  I love that the pattern includes step by step picture instructions in additional to the written pattern.  This made it really easy to understand the placement of the stitches.  

The dinosaurs needed some blocking but they look so much like the sihoulettes of the species they represent!  The instructions for fastening off were particularly fantastic.  It was one of the cleanest projects I've ever finished.  I'm going to change how I fasten off from now on!

Before blocking

Blocking the dinos

The finished dinosaur appliques are perfect.  I know that so much thought went into these designs and I really appreciate that they are so small and simple to create.  

I loved the sparkles at the top of Lucky's 3rd birthday party hats, so I decided that I would create rainbow garland pompoms.  I didn't have enough yarn to create yarn pompoms like I did for Lucky's first birthday.  I purchased a couple of garlands with this project in mind.

As much as I love the stars, with the bigger garland you can almost see lime green in there.

First, I cut a 6" piece of tinsel and stripped an inch of the sparkles from either end (to expose the wire.)  

Next, I folded the garland in half and twisted the ends together to form the bobble.  If the bobble looks too rounded give it a twist in the middle to make it more pom-pom-y.

Finally, I inserted some ribbon into the end of the wire so that I could easily hold the pompom in position on the hat when I glued everything together.  (My hands aren't small enough to grip the wire inside the hat and my glue gun can't reach all the way to the top, either.)

I had all of the pieces ready to go so now it was time to assemble the hats.  

I used some hot glue (on the inside!) and the ribbon closure to attach the tinsel pompoms to the top of the hats.  

I love the applique stegosauruses, but since they are two color they don't quite have enough contrast on the hats.  I really wanted to make sure I had two opposite hats for the photo shoot.  Ulimately, I decided to use just the long neck sauropods on the hats.  Keith and I ended up pinning the crochet stegosauruses to our shirts for the party so they didn't go to waste!  

I love the rainbow sparkles at the top of the hat.  I think that the dinosaur complements the colors in the bobble wonderfully even if there is no lime green.  

Soon I will share the pictures from Rowdy's first birthday photoshoot, hopefully before Rowdy turns 2!  I love being a crafty mom, but it takes way less time to create the projects than it does to edit the images and finish up the posts.  I plan to go big for the kids' first birthday parties but to hold back a bit for future birthdays.  Stay tuned for many more dinosaur crafting projects!  

Harry Potter Sweater Beer Cozy

Sometimes I stumble across a quick project that is PERFECT for someone in my life.  When the project requires specific colors that I happen to have in my stash I get extra excited.  The Harry Potter-Inspired Beer Sweater is just this type of project.  I love Harry Potter and I have all of the colors that I need in my stash.  Let's get crocheting!

For this project, I used a size H (5.0 mm) crochet hook and KnitPicks Wool of the Andes worsted weight yarn in Chestnut (brown; 2 g, 6 yards), Semolina (yellow; 3 g, 8 yards), White (6 g, 14 yards), Coal (Black; 1 g, 2 yards), and Currant (Maroon; 6 g, 13 yards).  I use white and black WOTA in so many projects that these aren't technically remnant.  If I use them up I'm going to replace them as soon as I can.  I also need to reorder a maroon and yellow to make a specific project... but I DID technically make this project out of yarn I already had in my stash so that is something.  

I finished the base of the beer cozy during naptime one afternoon.  The designer glued the glasses onto the cozy but I think I want to stitch the crochet chains on.  I probably could have done an applique chain stitch to embroider the glasses on, but why not just make a chain and stitch it on.

I love a quick little project.   The instructions were written out plus the designer provided a chart to follow for the color rows.  It was super easy to follow.  This is an adorable pattern, I'm not sure why more people haven't made it yet on Ravelry.

I'm really happy with this fast little project.  If I were going to do this again I would sew the glasses so they were a little rounder versus looking like an infinity symbol.  Hopefully the intended recipient will enjoy her present!  (And hopefully she doesn't read the blog so it doesn't get spoiled!)  

Spliced - A Chained Crochet GENEie Headband

Many of you have asked me for a crochet version of the GENEie hat for the March for Science.  I am pleased to share with you a simple approximation. I am a novice crocheter.  With the help of YouTube and instructions, I can make my way through a pattern but I am not advanced enough to do complicated designs.  I've never even attempted to do crochet cables and have minimal experience with colorwork.  I wanted to create a DNA design out of yarn that could be incorporated into a crochet pattern, or spliced onto a variety of different garments.   I am pleased to introduce "Spliced - A Chained Crochet GENEie Headband"!  Spliced is crocheted sideways and then a long crochet chain is appliqued on to form the backbone of the  double helix.  The bonds between the backbones are created with a back stitch.

Materials

• Worsted weight yarn.  The sample used KnitPicks Shine Worsted in Pistachio and French Blue.  42 g, 63 yards total were used in the sample.  
• Size H (5.0 mm) crochet hook or size to get your desired stitch size.  
• Gauge is not essential for this project
• Finished Size: 3" wide x 19.5" around.  (Fits Adult Small Head)
• Notions: Tapestry Needle, Sewing needle and thread (optional), pins (optional)

The Spliced Crochet Headband on a pile of GENEie the Next Generations Headbands in the same colors.  

The DNA embellishment in Spliced is formed by appliqueing a crochet chain onto a piece of crochet fabric to form the backbone of the double helix.  The bonds between the DNA bases are embroidered between the backbones with back stitch.  If you would prefer, you can use chain stitch embroidery to apply the helix directly onto the crochet cloth, but I personally found it easier to sew on a crochet chain.

Spliced - A Chained Crochet GENEie Headband Crochet Pattern (NEW!  There is now a video tutorial on how to create the Spliced DNA design!)

1. Chain 12 stitches in the main color (MC)
2. Turn and double crochet (DC) in the 3rd chain from the hook.  DC across.  (10 DC sts)
3. Turn and Ch3.  DC in every stitch across.  
4. Repeat until your piece measures 19.5" or is long enough to fit around you head. (Note: My head is 22" around and this headband will fit with negative ease.)  Do not fasten off.
   
   
5. In a contrasting color (CC) for the DNA chain, create two crochet chains 36" long.  If you are creating a larger headband make the chains a bit longer, too.  It is better to have these chains be too long than too short, you can always unravel them!
6. Starting at one end of the headband, pin one chain to the headband to create one side of the DNA double helix.  You can use the knitting chart from the GENEie Cable Version as a guide.  (You could go straight to stitching the chain down, but I wanted to be able to make the helix appear regular so I decided to pin first.  Plus this allowed me to take some more step by step pictures )
   
   
7. Pin the second chain to the headband to complete your DNA backbone. Take care to thread this chain under the first at every other join to maintain the appearance of a twist.
   

   

   The crochet chains always cross each other in the same direction.  After the first chain was pinned, I wove the second strand over and under each time the backbones would cross each other.  Then, I adjusted the shape of the second chain and pinned it down.

   

   The backbone is pinned and ready to sew down.  

8. Stitch the backbones in place.  I used a sewing needle with blue thread to stitch down the design, but you could also use yarn and a tapestry needle.
   
   
9. Create the bonds to represent base pairs using a back stitch and your contrasting color.  I created three bonds with each twist on my headband.
   
   
   
10. With MC, join the two edges of the headband together.  You can either stitch them closed with a whip stitch or you can create a flat single crochet seam. 
    
    
11. Connect the edges of your double helix.  Since my DNA didn't line up exactly at the edges, I found an intersection point for the crochet chains and then inserted the excess onto the wrong side of the fabric.  I stitched down the ends and added another base pairing.  I unraveled any excess chain and wove in the loose ends on the wrong side of the fabric.
    

    
12. Single crochet (SC) around either edge of the headband to give a finished edge.
    

    

    Almost finished - the Spliced headband has a SC edge on top and an unfinished edge on the bottom.  

13. Weave in any remaining loose ends.  

Video - Do you want more help creating Spliced? Watch the following video!

Ideas with this technique - Spliced is really an applique/embroidery pattern, more than a crochet pattern.  You can apply the Spliced DNA Helix onto a number of different projects.   Here are some ideas: 

• Crochet a pussyhat and apply the embroidered double helix to make a crochet version of the GENEie Pussyhat.
• For a denser fabric, crochet a headband with HDC or even SC stitches.  
• You can also add the DNA applique and embroidery onto any knit garment or even onto a commercial fabric.  
• Use the applique technique to create an applique resistor headband!  

A comparison of Spliced (center) to two GENEie the Next Generations Headbands.  

When I went to take a selfie of the in progress Spliced Headband, Lucky came up and said, "Cheese!"  I told him to go put on his GENEie The Next Generations Headband and pose with me.   

 

 The March for Science is quickly coming up on April 22, 2017.  Are you making a pattern from the GENEie Collection?  There are 6 different hat and headband knitting patterns to choose from, and now with Spliced you could crochet a headband, too!  

Spliced - A Chained Crochet GENEie Headband Crochet Pattern © 2017 ChemKnits & Rebecca Roush Brown.  This pattern is available for free via www.ChemKnits.com for your personal or charity use.  You are not to copy or distribute this pattern without the permission of the publisher, ChemKnits.


This post contains some KnitPicks affiliate links.  I became an affiliate in October 2018 after using KnitPicks yarns for many years.  All yarn selections and options are my own.