pigtails: Roly Poly Pillow-Seat done!

Woo hooo my first Roly Poly Pillow-Seat is finished! The original idea was blogged by The Thrifty Fox and re-blogged here and I re-blogged about the same here. I think I found my "thing" - that is some"thing" that I enjoy making, seeing and displaying so much that I just have to make a few more, in all sorts of colour combos including a liquorice all-sorts black and white one spruced up with vibrant pink, orange and green stripes. Wherever I put the Roly Poly down, it just seems to fit right in. This one is destined for my boy's room but I just had to try it out in the kitchen and upstairs lounge area too. Our bedrooms are private space, hence me not posting photos of the Roly Poly in it's rightful place.

Looking back at the original article now, I think that I should have added more stuffing to it. I deliberately added less so that my boy would be able to sink in and read a book or play with his Lego, but it seems just a tad on the floppy side now. Tomorrow I will open one side and add some more stuffing; just now I want to keep on looking at it.

I used 100% acrylic yarn Made in Japan of dubious thickness. Not all the colours were of the same weight either but I am just thankful that any yarn at all is available for purchasing in Penang. I used a 5.00mm Made in China hook (so cannot confirm whether the size aligns with hooks internationally . . . ) hooking the 12 pentagons needed to make the Roly Poly. Each pentagon measures 15cm from the center to any of it's 5 corners.

I alternated US double crochet (dc), half double (hdc) and single crochet (sc) stitches at random and added texture by inserting the hook only in the back loop of the chain instead of into both loops on a few rows. I roughly used a row of dc only once per pentagon and hooked the pentagons with the majority of the rows in hdc's. The texture where I hooked via the back loop only was created mainly on the sc rows. The Roly Polys are not supposed to be looking too neat and perfect but more organic and handmade.

Basic Idea/Pattern:

To begin: Chain 4 and join to form a ring.

Round 1: Chain 3 and 14 dc into ring = 15 sts

Round 2: *3dc into 1 st, 1 dc in each of next 2 sts * repeat 5 times = 25 sts

Round 3 and all other uneven rounds: 2 dc each in the 2 chains that forms the middle stitches of the 3 dc of the previous round, 1 dc in all other sts

Round 4 and all other even rounds: 3dc in the middle chain of the 4 dc that forms the corner of the previous round, 1 dc in all other sts

Round 3 onward illustrated - It is only after hooking a few pentagons that I realised the below is the best solution in order to keep the corners neat and the shape flat. How you treat the corners also pretty much depends on whether you use US sc, half or double sc stitches. With US dc or UK treble stitches there is a very distinct middle, not so with half double.

||| \|/ ||| - middle 3 dc all in one chain to form corner of row 3

||| \\// ||| - middle 4 dc split between middle 2 chains to form corner of row 4

||| \|/ ||| - middle 3 dc all in one chain to form corner of row 5

||| \\// ||| - middle 4 dc split between middle 2 chains to form corner of row 6 etc