Hello everyone. For the past year as part of Hooks and Dragons  Crochet I’ve been making crochet versions of famous people. I really enjoy picking out  important features of a persons face or clothing that make then instantly recognisable.

Sometimes famous people are as recognisable by their accessories as they are their features. I’ve recently made Brian Mays complete with his ‘Special Red’ guitar and Roger Taylor complete with his drum kit.

So when a Twitter friend asked if I could make Guy Martin and his motorbike I said “sure, no problem”. Guy was fairly easy to make and I think he came out really well. Now however I have to contend with the task of making a crochet motorbike.

I may have mislead you a little with the title of this post. I’ve given the impression I know how to make a crochet motorbike but that’s a bit of a fib. People often ask how I go about making new patterns. The short answer is trial, error and a lot of swearing!

At this precise moment in time I have no idea how to crochet a motorbike. So through this post I’m going to show the thought (or lack of) process I go through when designing a new crochet item.

A crochet motorbike is to date the most complicated thing I have attempted to make and as i write this I’m still thinking how the hell am I going to do this? But it will all work out well in the end, hopefully……

Crochet motorbike –  Day 1

11am-
Day one is always bad. I inevitably think I have no design skills and should pack up my hooks for good. Despite this today started off quite well. I decided to use the knowledge I have of bikes and construct the crochet version in roughly the same way  a real motorbike would be made.

As the mother of a bike mad son, I’ve far more knowledge about bikes than I would ever want.  I crocheted a couple of wheels and then used my bike knowledge to  roughly designing the motorbike frame.

Bamboo skewers are my new best friend when it comes to making accesssories. I use them to pin pieces together and add stability and rigidity. (Note – this motorbike is being made for an adult, and is not designed to be used as a toy).

After measuring and cutting the bamboo I cover each in a small strip of plain crochet and sewed them together to make the basic frame of the bike.

Alongside the bamboo skewers I find cardboard is  very useful to add stability. By making two identical pieces of crochet  and sewing a cardboard insert between them I can make stiff panels (stop sniggering).

2pm –
There is a saying ‘The devil is in the detail’. I don’t know what this really refers to, but I know when crocheting the details are often seriously time consuming and cause plenty of swearing.

I like to embroider details that are too fine to add in the crocheting stage, such as the red piping and silver brake disk on the wheels.

6pm –
Alongside the frame and wheels I also completed the nose cone, handle bars and fuel tank today. From the front it is looking quite good.

 Crochet Motorbike – Day 2

11am
Day two of a new make always starts with a review of what I’ve already done. At this point I usually put my head in my hands and have a cry at how rubbish it looks, but the bike doesn’t look too bad, although there is still a long way to go.

The order of work for day two was decided in part by the colours of the yarn I was working with. This may sound a bit strange, but anybody that crochets will know dark colours like purple and black are a bitch to work with as it is really hard to see the stitches.

Therefore I always work with these colours early in the morning when there is maximum light in my livingroom.

3pm –

Once all the black pieces were out the way I had to work out how to fill in the sides of the bike. This is where I can share another exclusive Mrs A trick of the trade, paper templates.

When the template was cut and folded into the right shape I was able to make a piece of crochet that matched it in size and shape by increasing and decreasing on rows until it was the same shape as the template. I make that sound easy, but in truth there is a lot of ripping back involved before I got it right.

Finally I crocheted on more of those pesky but important details.

At the end of day 2 I had something that looked quite like a proper motorbike.

Crochet Motorbike – Day 3

Like day 2 I started today with a fresh look at what I had achieved so far. Yesteday I thought would fill in the black triange area on the side panels with embroidery, but in reflectiom decided this would rake far too long so crocheted a piece to sew on instead.

At this point the bike looked almost finished. Until you lookes at it from the front or back. At those angles it was easy to see the centre of the bike was hollow and this looked quite silly.

It was easily recrified with a few more crochet and cardboard panels to hide the gaps and add a bit of extra stability.

Final result, a crochet motorbike. I have shown the bike to a highly critical bike expert (aka my son M) and got very good feedback.

Have you ever attempted to make a crochet object? Do you like to use patterns or do you prefer to make your own up like me?

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