Crochet a Corkscrew
Jen LucasDescription
Crocheting a corkscrew is a fun and easy project that can be done using only basic crochet skills: a foundation chain and single or double crochet stitches. In this video lesson, Jen discusses the many uses for a crocheted corkscrew: vine decorations on a crocheted pumpkin, components for an amigurumi project like octopus or jellyfish tentacles, even decorative fringe for a scarf! She mentions that any size yarn and hook will work; it just depends on the project.
Jen shows how to begin by making a chain that is just slightly longer than the desired finished length of the corkscrew. She notes that it doesn’t really matter which part of the foundation chain to work into because the corkscrew will curl around the chain, hiding it from view. Jen chooses to work into just one of the loops along the front of each chain, since it is easy to do.
She demonstrates how to work 3 single crochet stitches into each chain, and shows how the resulting fabric will start to curl. If the corkscrew does not curl into the proper shape by itself, a crochet hook, knitting needle, pen or pencil can be used to wrap the fabric around it to help it curl correctly.
Jen shows how when using three double crochet stitches per chain (instead of three single crochet stitches) the look of the corkscrew changes; it becomes chunkier. She mentions that although it is most common to use single crochet or double crochet, other stitches can be used instead- this is a great place to experiment with crochet!
Hi, I'm Jen Lucas, and I want to show you how to crochet a corkscrew. It's these cute little pieces of fabric that you can make a variety of ways. And they're really, really fun to add to all sorts of projects. I love using them when I'm crocheting a pumpkin for the fall season, you can use it as a little vine. If you like to crochet little toys or amigurumi, if you're doing something like an octopus, this could be the little tentacles or a jellyfish. There's lots of cute little uses for these corkscrews and so I want to show you how to make them. They're actually very simple to make. So to start, we just need a yarn and a crochet hook. I'm just using a bulky yarn and the appropriate size hook for that, but you can make a corkscrew using any yarn, any hook, whatever's gonna match your project. So we're gonna go ahead and start by making a slip knot and doing a chain. And you're just gonna want to make the chain a little bit longer than what you want your corkscrew to be. The reason being is that it is gonna curl on itself slightly, but the chain itself actually doesn't get too curled up. It actually kind of stays pretty straight, so you don't need to make a chain that's super long for your corkscrew. Once you have the chain that you want, we're going to work into it. And I'm going to just work into one loop on the front of the chain. Now, normally, when I'm starting a crochet project, I personally like to work into the back or bottom bump of my chain, because I like having that little braided edge along the bottom of my crochet project. But with these corkscrews, because the corkscrew is just gonna curl on itself, it's curling on the chain, you can't really see where you've worked into the chain, and so I find it easiest just to work under one loop on the front side of the chain when I'm doing this. But you can work into the chain however you like. So for this particular corkscrew, I'm gonna just do single crochet. And so what I'm gonna do is starting with the second chain from the hook, I'm gonna put three single crochets into the stitch. So there's my first chain, here's my second. I'm just gonna insert my hook, yarn over, pull up a loop, so I have two loops on the hook, and then yarn over, pull through two again. And that is my first single crochet. So I'm going to add two more. And so we have three single crochets in that one stitch. And so I'm gonna just keep continuing doing that all the way down until I get to the end of the chain. So I'm coming to the end here and I have my last stitch and I'm just putting my three single crochets into this last stitch. And you can already see it's really curling on itself already. So we'll just take our scissors and give this a trim. And then I'll just pull the tail through this final loop. And there we go. So if you notice that your corkscrew isn't perfectly coiling on itself, you can take your crochet hook, or if you have a really long corkscrew, you can take a knitting needle or a pencil or a pen. And I like to just help shape it by wrapping it around the crochet hook. And so that just helps keep everything in place. And then once I pull my crochet hook out, we have this cute little corkscrew. And so for this particular one, I added three single crochets into each stitch, but I have an example here where I actually did three double crochets into each stitch. And by doing double crochets, I have a much chunkier corkscrew, which also is really cute, too. So you can play around with the type of stitch that you're using to make your corkscrew. Most commonly, you're gonna see the made with a single crochet or a double crochet. And usually, you're working three stitches into each chain, but this is something where you can really play around with it and make it your own. Like I said, I think these are really great for toys, pumpkins, different amigurumi, I think that you can make a bunch of them and add them as fringe to the bottom of a scarf, that could be something really cute to do with them. So enjoy making your corkscrews and I can't wait to see what you do with them.
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