Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Not Crochet, Beer Commercial





My brother in law was recently in a beer commercial I loved it, and am doing by bit toward virality, if I may be so bold to coin a word.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Double crochet

After many moons and more stitches, been hookin it up with double crochet.  This is a ten row with same patterns I been using but skipping the [3+6+6+3] row and instead just joining.  The double crocheting affected the pattern more than I anticipated.  

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Beginnings revisted

This was the first projectile I ever made for slinging.  Its leather filled with clay pellets.  We have strayed far from this humble beginning, and that's a good thing because I was not considering it for use against human targets ...

Saturday, June 7, 2014

going ballistic

Ballistic Crochet is gonna be hawking its wares... in a venue in India... so stop by... soon available in the US hopefully...

Friday, June 6, 2014

honker

I couldn't resist...I was alone with a #6 hook and a ball of cotton twine.  It is huge....and it hurts.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

bigger hook bigger ball

same pattern...12 rows.  Difference is hook size... a 2.5 and a 4.

Friday, May 30, 2014

12 row cornfed with a #4 hook

This puppy would hurt.  The colors are great but mostly because black just makes any color pop.  I like it in my hand but I don't want it coming at me at 70 mph.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

rainbow defeat...and victory

This was meant as mimicry of the rainbow scrap ball... but for reasons I can't describe... i don't like it... but in contrast to this... driving in unbelievably horrible traffic today in Kathmandu just a the sun was setting now at the beginning of monsoon..the skies cleared and we witnessed a rainbow so neon bright that we almost couldn't believe it was real... win some lose some.

rainbow...strangly unsatisfying

this was an attempt to mimic the scrap ball from earlier...but for reasons I can't describe...I don't like it... too small...too much red... not sure...

tiranga disappointment

the single central stripe is not as sharp as I hoped... closing is clunky... need the same color in the middle..a double stripe at least.

glen...

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Ti Ranga

Going for an imitation of the Indian flag here...the "Tiranga" hindi...or maybe sanscrit for "three colors".  But it was a mistake to go for a single row of white, made the closing look like an eye sore.

Friday, May 23, 2014

trichrome up close...

though the rows are even since the middle rows have more stitches te effect is not stripes but spots... unless by "stripes" you mean a ping pong table is white with green stripes.

trichromes

these three colors are great except that the middle band is a bit too think... I will have to try only two rows for these.

diachromes

lookin spiffy... almost ready for sale

Friday, May 16, 2014

Trifecta

Sometimes you just get it right. Now that the design is solidified... it's time to mass produce.

Monday, May 12, 2014

where's the closing?

You, my friend, are looking at it.  Now a close inspection reveals a small divet where the interior closing knot pulls on the seam a bit too much.  But contrast this with my first closing attempts...

Saturday, May 10, 2014

tricolor inspires...

...the next generation of projectiles.  The rainbow dude from a couple of posts ago taught me that scraps have potential.  I crocheted up to a twleve- stitch row with a yellow scrap piece that could not have been used on other patterns.  Then two rows of a green and a single row of blue.  When joined the blue ends up with a double row.  Downside is it required some careful knot splicing to keep the knots inside the ball and still secure through what is bound to be a lifetime of being slammed against walls trees and other hard objects.

tricolor pics

Friday, May 9, 2014

i was wrong!

though a bit knotty due to the knots... its a pretty good one... think I will try another multicolor...

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

win some lose some

sometimes... it's just too ugly to even bother filling it... I like the colors but its made from scraps and... I mean do I even have to say it?

Friday, May 2, 2014

clean profile

slightly new closing yields a tighter profile... it's more secure too... and of course...cornfed.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

cornfed

after a small break... ballistic crochet is trying corn stuffed slingballs... perks include popcorn upon landing in a fire.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

string stuffed

In a house in the middle of India somewhere I found myself close to finishing sewing a seam with no beans of any kind and no shops nearby... But I did have extra string.  Turns out, though far lighter they are much harder and pack a sting at higher velocities as my friend was eager to demonstrate on me. 

Sunday, March 23, 2014

twelve row with liner.

Still intetested in using moong dhal, a much smaller seed, for stuffing.  The crochet holes are not ever going to he small enough to hold grain this small so i tried a plastic bag used in shops here.  The size and weight are just right.

dangers of slingball in the house

Ok.. we were'nt actually weilding slings.  Slinging in a house would require an unusually open floor plan, and an even more unusually tollerant wife.  Since I only have the latter, the boys and I were just chucking balls at each other.  But sometimes the light switch just gets chucked. 

Saturday, March 22, 2014

eight row perfect for small hands

I ran out of orange cord near the fourth row and so I just stopped to make his little guy and my other little guy said "oh!...thank you!"  I made this with a number 7 steel hook.  It was actually a bit too small to cradle the string but sharp enough to grab it anyway.  For some reason steel hook sizes run backwards here with smaller numbers equalling bigger hooks.  Seven was the biggest one they had

comparing seams and closings

This is my first and most recent attempts at a central seam.  I think we are heading in the right direction here.

Friday, March 21, 2014

code cracked

An historic moment.  No innovation attempts.  This little guy is identical to the previous projectile except in color.  The size, the seam, the closing, the two joined halves design... for now.. success... and all i need is more.  Slingball anyone?

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

sometimes old ideas are best

Went back to the idea of joining two halves.  When I first did this, the seam was always clunky because at the time I had not figured out how to tie off a clean closing.  I have since discovered the closing braid, and combined with a matching-color seam stitch the effect is striking.  It looks like they are held together magnetically, or glued.   The colors really pop but better than that... two cleanly joined halves maintain an excellent spherical shape.  The last stitched rows are joined face to face flattening out the curve and smoothing the seam.  I smell mass-production.  And by mass production I mean, for once in my life not trying something new every other projectile.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

16 to 8 stitch row seam

the seam is not as smooth as the 12 to 6 stitch joint but it does offer more of the accent color to be seen...

Monday, March 17, 2014

home-made oreos?!

I mean sometimes you gotta stop making crochet projectiles and start.eating some home made oreos

Sunday, March 16, 2014

10 row special closing

This little guy's closing was spliced between the 12-stitch and the 6-stitch rows.  It kept the spherical shape well, and it was easy to pull left over strands out of the yellow eyelet to do the final braid off.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

12 row closing at row count 17

I am not partial to these closings anymore because the mishaping is so noticeable but I ran out of green thread and this seemed better than a splice for just one more row. 

Thursday, March 13, 2014

2.5 mm hook makes a pumpkin

This little ten-row is about the size of a key lime.  Light enough to not hurt much, it still packs enough momentum to ensure the target's knowledge of contact.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

different hooks for different...looks

These two balls used the exact same pattern from the previous post. Mean green here was made with a 5mm hook, and our little blue friend with a 2.5mm. The difference is noticeable and makes our little blue friend not hurt when it strikes flesh at high velocities. Which, I must remind my readers, is our goal. Not to strike people, but to make an object that can be used in a sling for the coming sport of slingball which is soon to sweep the nation something like Beeltemania... Slingmania is coming my friends, prepare yourselves.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

ten row with 5 mm hook

Smaller ball for sure even with a number 5.  This will be my last rubber bladder filled ball.  The lentils are so small, the smallest knick in the rubber ruins the ball.  Colors are engaging though, and I took the lid down one row away from the middle row.  Used the pattern below.

+ is an increase stitch
- is a decrease stitch

10 row

with black thread
6 (make a magic circle, six stitches around a slip knot) (6)
++++++ (increase in every stitch to make 12 total stitches) (12)
1+2+2+2+1 (16)
3+3+3+3+ (20)
4+10+4 (22)
22 (22)
4-10-4 (20)  stop here and make the top
-3-3-3-3 (16) (not used)
1-2-2-2-1 (12) (not used)


with green thread
6 (make a magic circle, six stitches around a slip knot) (6)
++++++ (increase in every stitch to make 12 total stitches) (12)
1+2+2+2+1 (16)
3+3+3+3+ (20)  stop here and join to the main body

Friday, March 7, 2014

broken hook leads to oddball

I snapped the head off my 3.5 forcing me to switch to a 5 in the middle of this twelve row black/yellow buckeye.  The recent advent of this black cord has opened up an entirely different color scheme.

pros: the size allows for ease of loading in a sling and the colors inviting.
cons: stuffed with garbonzo beans its just too massive.  Too easy to get someone  hurt chucking it.  Not my goal. 

Either a lightet stuffing or a smaller pattern is needed.