crochet

I learned crochet before I really got the hang of knitting, and find it’s far easier to teach people to use a hook rather than two sticks with pointy ends. And yet, I do not consider myself a crocheter. The painful truth is I find the fabric created by most crochet patterns to be ugly, blocky, stiff and square where knitted fabric with its army of tiny chevrons drapes much more nicely and lends itself to a large variety of patterns.

Truly, this is unfair, as the fault lies not with the medium (for certainly there are many lovely free-form crochet pieces and knitting cannot match the three-dimensional shaping that crochet so nicely lends itself to). I believe the fault lies with the patterns. Indeed, many crocheted patterns seem to revel in crochet’s blockier, square aspects, seeking to whip up a garment from geometric shapes with no sense of the human form underneath. I find a happy medium in the daintier femininity of 30′s patterns, which utilize crochet to, yes, form the geometric shapes popular with the Deco style, but also have a flair of girliness so often neglected in crochet patterns until very recently.

And with that, I share…The Enfield!

Note how the linear quality of the basic crochet stitch has been harnessed to enhance the military effect of the epaulets and center decoration. Further instructions are below the cut.

Enjoy!