Fibermancy

So I've decided to try my hand at crochet. I think I was probably around 5 years old the last time I tried crochet, and the only thing I learned to do was a very, very basic rectangular crochet, which I may or may not have persisted at long enough to make a somewhat passable scarf.

Not that anyone would ever want to wear a scarf crocheted out of scratchy cheap acrylic yarn.

Anyway, this time I'm swinging to the opposite extreme, crocheting lace. And using better quality yarn (or crochet thread, as the case may be).

I did a test swatch of this pattern which incorporates a pineapple motif. Designed by someone who has never, in their entire life, seen a pineapple in person.

I made a few mistakes and "creative deviations" with this.

The major mistake was misunderstanding the technique for double and single crochet, and accidentally inserting an extra chain stitch at the base that isn't intended to be there. So, all my crochet stitches are just a little bit too long. I also occasionally miscounted or mis-aimed my stitches and had to undo a bit of work to correct it.

The creative decision was mostly around how I decided to fix each row to the previous one. You're normally meant to wiggle the crochet hook into the top V of thread on the previous row, but especially with how many stitches a lace pattern can often stuff into one stitch on the previous row, I decided it would be prudent to, instead, just hook fully under the stitch on the previous row instead. I think this worked out fairly well, with the exception of one or two places where I didn't have an isolated chain switch to wrap around.

In the end I think the pattern turned out kind of pretty. I think I'll omit the row of shells on the right hand side in the photo, though. It makes the lace a bit wide and I don't really feel a strong urge to weave a ribbon through it for the application I have in mind.

What did turn out a bit odd was the unexpected dimensionality of the finished swatch.

I'm pretty sure it's supposed to lay flat, and I'm not really sure what's causing the "pineapples" to bubble up like this. It's not the worst thing in the world in this case, since being rounded is certainly a pineapple-esque trait, but I would like to get to the bottom of it before committing to crocheting a larger piece.

I suspect it might, possibly, be due to the accidentally longer stitches I was using, but that should have self-compensated across the piece, so in the end I'm just a little bit puzzled. I might try blocking this to see if it flattens itself out.

The slanted pineapple-and-shell pattern that the main body of this lace is composed of is a very old, well tested lace pattern so I don't immediately suspect that the pattern is to blame.

It is a mystery.

Edit a day later: Blocking seems to have helped.

It hasn't fully dried yet, but I assume it's not going to curl up like a potato chip when it does. Maybe. I dunno?