NOTE: GAUGE INFORMATION BELOW HAS BEEN UPDATED, 11/3/14 I'm so excited! I've been invited to do a large-scale yarn-bombing and creature installation at one of my favorite local sites, the Delaware Museum of Natural History! It's in conjunction with their exhibit Titanoboa: Monster Snake! and involves creating a 40-foot yarn snake (Yarnensis delawarum) to hang in their display corridor. I'm also going to be decorating some of their outdoor signs, and covering two of their outdoor statues with yarn. The bear statue will be completely encased in white motifs to create "Polar Bear," and the turtle scutes will have colorful motifs on top of the bronze ones. (I'll be asking for volunteers to help with those later; for now I need helpers to make snake segments.)
You can become a part of this unique crochet event! If you'd like to contribute a snake segment, Please sign up for Yarn-bomb for DE Mus. of Nat. Hist.!
Here's how it works in 3 easy steps: 1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/4XYtJY 2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot) 3. Sign up! Choose your spots - VolunteerSpot will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!
(Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me, Sharon@SharonSilverman.com, and I can sign you up manually.)
This is a wonderful opportunity to bring attention to fiber arts and especially to get children interested. It's also a great way to support the Delaware Museum of Natural History and to give their Titanoboa: Monster Snake exhibit a holiday season boost. Also the perfect way to use up some of your stash yarn! Thank you very much for your participation, I deeply appreciate it! Email me, Sharon@SharonSilverman.com, if you have any questions.
_________________________________________
And here is the pattern:
SNAKE SEGMENT for DELAWARE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, in association with the exhibit TITANOBOA: MONSTER SNAKE!
Thank you for agreeing to crochet a segment of Yarnensis delawarum, a 40-foot long snake that will be on display at the Delaware Museum of Natural History. Your name will appear on the Museum’s list of volunteers when the exhibit is installed in December 2014.
Before you start, a few important notes:
- Yarn MUST be from a SMOKE-FREE environment.
- Some of the people who will install the snake in the Museum have severe cat allergies. Please do not send anything made with yarn that could have cat hair on it from the animals themselves, your furniture, storage bins, or your clothing.
- Gauge is essential! The segments must line up properly and to have the same amount of stretch. Please test your gauge and make sure it meets the specifications below.
MATERIALS
Crochet hook size G/4.25 mm (or size needed to obtain gauge)
Worsted weight yarn (any content as long as it meets the “Acceptable” criteria below)
ACCEPTABLE
Solid color
Variegated
Smooth
NOT ACCEPTABLE
Fuzzy
Shedding
Dirty
Novelty yarn
GAUGE
With G hook, in pattern,
56 stitches = 12.5 to 13” (width of segment)
(approximately 18 stitches/4")
10 rows = 5.5” (length of segment)
STITCHES AND ABBREVIATIONS:
Back loop only (blo)
Chain stitch (ch)
Double crochet (dc)
Double crochet 2 together (dc2tog)
Loop (lp), loops (lps)
Stitch (st), stitches (sts)
Yarn over (yo)
STITCH GUIDE
Back Loop Only: When the hook is inserted only the back loop only, the empty front loop creates a ridge on the side of the work facing you. Look down at the top of the work and you will see a series of V-shaped stitches. The back loop is the part of the V farthest from you. This is always the case, whether you are working on the right side or wrong side of the work. To work a dc in the blo: Yarn over, insert hook through back loop of stitch, yo, pull up lp, (yo, pull through 2 lps) twice.
Double Crochet 2 Together: To get the waves in chevrons, multiple stitches are worked at the top of each wave. That means there has to be a corresponding decrease in the number of stitches at the bottom of each wave. This is accomplished by working 2 dc stitches together. To do so, work the first dc until 2 lps remain on hook; work a second dc into the next stitch until there are 3 total lps remaining on the hook, yo, pull through all 3 lps. To put it step by step: Yo, insert hook where instructed, yo, pull to front, yo, pull through 2 lps. You will have 2 lps still on the hook. Yo, insert hook into the next stitch, yo, pull to front, yo, pull through 2 lps, yo, pull through remaining 3 lps. Dc2tog completed.
SNAKE SEGMENT
Ch 59. Last 3 chs count as first dc on Row 1.
Row 1: Dc in the 4th ch from hook, dc in next ch, (dc2tog over next 2 chs) twice, dc in next ch, 2 dc in next ch, *2 dc in next ch, dc in next ch, (dc2tog over next 2 chs) twice, dc in next ch, 2 dc in next ch. Repeat from * across.
Notes: The ch-3 at the beginning of Row 2 and all subsequent rows counts as the first dc. Starting with Row 2, work all double crochet stitches into the back loop only.
Row 2: Ch 3, turn. Working in blo, dc in first dc (at base of chains), dc in next dc, (dc2tog over next 2 sts) twice, dc in next dc, 2 dc in next dc, *2 dc in next dc, dc in next dc, (dc2tog over next 2 sts) twice, dc in next dc, 2 dc in next dc. Repeat from *, working last 2 dc in 3rd of 3 ch.
Rows 3-10: Repeat Row 2. Fasten off.
_________________________________________________________
About the Delaware Museum of Natural History
As the state’s only natural history museum, the Delaware Museum of Natural History opened in 1972 to excite and inform people about the natural world through exploration and discovery. The Museum houses Delaware’s only-permanent dinosaur display, surrounded by exhibits of mammals, shells, and other specimens from around the world. The Museum manages world-renowned scientific collections of mollusks and birds, including one of the top 15 mollusk collections in the United States. The Delaware Museum of Natural History is located five miles northwest of downtown Wilmington and three miles from the Pennsylvania border at 4840 Kennett Pike (Route 52), Wilmington, Delaware, 19807. www.delmnh.org
About Titanoboa: Monster Snake
From a Colombian coal mine 60 million years deep, scientists have uncovered remains of the largest snake in the world – Titanoboa! Measuring 48 feet long and weighing 2,500 pounds, this massive predator could crush and devour a crocodile. Now that scientists have discovered dozens of Titanoboa deep in a fossil bed, prehistoric life will never be the same. Explore this ancient reptile at Titanoboa: Monster Snake. Organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the Smithsonian Channel, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the Florida Museum of Natural History. Sponsored locally by DuPont. Additional support from Corporation Service Company.
