Sunday 19 April 2015

Crochet cube

Crochet is brilliant, don't you think ? I find it such a relaxing hobby, playing with yarn of all varieties and colours of the rainbow, and I love the fact that crochet projects can be so diverse - from a tiny flower to a humungous blanket, from a simple washcloth to a complicated openwork shawl. In fact that pretty much sums up what I love about crochet - colour and diversity. And for me the diversity is best demonstrated by the use of crocheted squares.

On the subject of rainbow brights and square-ness, for a while now, on and off, I've been working on a fun project for our playroom. We have a two seater sofa in there, and with 3 Little People ...... well it doesn't take a genius to work out the problem. So I thought I'd make a little cubey stool type thingammybob for them to sit on, put their feet on, roll around the room, use for den-building, and so on. Inspiration struck at some point around Christmas and I decided to make it in the style of a Rubik's cube. (I used to LOVE my Rubik's cube, I could nearly solve it. All but the last 4 middle edge bits. Totally forgotten how now, but still it holds a fascination for me ....)


Anyway, I saved the cardboard from parcels that arrived, mostly by amazon, at Christmas time. And also from Very Important Wool Deliveries. I worked out that the width of three 4-round solid grannies crocheted together was about the right size for a Little Person to sit on, and then I made the right size of cardboard box out of bits of cardboard. With me so far ?


The box then had to be filled with something to make it stand up to the rigours of 3 ruffians. I decided to use layers of cardboard. Not sure if this was a good idea, it took Flipping Ages. Cutting cardboard is horrible, really hurts your hands, is blooming awkward and seems to take forever. But, forever later, I had a nice solid cardboard cube. Maybe not the easiest solution but it definitely works. 


For extra sturdiness I wrapped miles of packing tape round the whole thing.


Obviously each face of the cube needed 9 squares. And I wanted a solved Rubik's cube. No disorderly random chaos of mixed up pieces for me, thanks very much.)


9 of each of red, blue, green, yellow, orange and grey. The grey was instead of white which I thought would get pretty grubby pretty quickly. To be honest I always wished the Rubik's cube had had a purple face instead of white, that would have been much better balanced in terms of the colour wheel I think. Silly old Mr Rubik.


For each face I crocheted all the squares individually then joined them together using double crochet, in black, on the right sides. This gives a really nice definition to the indiviual squares.


I then used the same double crochet seam, again on the right sides, to join the faces together to make up the cube shape. 


Once 5 faces were joined together, I joined the last face on by one edge, then slipped the cover over the box - it fitted really well thank goodness! My measurements, amazingly, were right.


Finally I crocheted the last 3 edges with the cover in place (otherwise I wouldn't have had enough of a gap to get the cube in).


And ta-daaaa!! A Rubik's cube cubey thing :)





And there you go, a bit of rainbow coloured recycling crochet fun :)

Of course now they are arguing over who gets to sit on the Rubik's cube. Ho-hum.

Happy crocheting people :) 
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This post is my submission to the Deramores Craft Blog Competition 2015. Deramores is the UK’s number one online retailer of knitting and crochet supplies. Visit www.deramores.com for more details.

24 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, this is awesome! I love it. It's fun and colorful and totally unique. You did a great job with it too. So clever. Your kids must be so happy!

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  2. I agree with what Jennifer typed, Jill! [I found the solution for solving the Rubik's Cube printed somewhere...and following said solution was the only way I managed to get the cube in order] I can imagine the very clever cube you created being prized seating in your playroom :) Thanks for posting! xx

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  3. Does that mean you have to make another two Rubik's cube cubey thing? I think it is great,,, well done. I could never do the real cube,,,

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  4. What a good idea, it looks wonderful.

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  5. That looks amazing, such a wonderful creation.

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  6. Jill that's brilliant, what a great idea. I remember struggling to solve the puzzle (don't think I ever managed to do it on my own, I had a written solution that someone gave me) then there'd be a 6-year-old on TV solving it in about 2 minutes! :o) Have a great week. Jane x

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  7. Wow! What a brilliant idea!! I am sure it will be well loved by your little ones (and I will keep the idea in mind for the future when I will have kids)!

    Take care
    Anne (Crochet Between Worlds)

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  8. Crikey that must be the best use of a cardboard box I've seen! Well done! Jane x

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  9. Wow this is fantastic and such a great idea
    Jackie x

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  10. You did a great job on this one my friend. Brilliant and of course it had to be a solved cube, I am not into the randomness either. I never was very good at it myself, I detested those show offs who could solve it in a matter of minutes.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  11. Holy Hannah - this is brilliant Jill! My daughter would go bonkers for that cube! Lol

    Great job talented Girl. Just love it xoxo

    Happy week ahead!! xoxo

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  12. That is brilliant Jill, I love it, well done.
    P S Is that your own wool collection in the background of the photo? It looks like a wool shop - very impressive!
    Caz xx

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  13. That is brilliant Jill, I love it, well done.
    P S Is that your own wool collection in the background of the photo? It looks like a wool shop - very impressive!
    Caz xx

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  14. How brilliant is that!! Nice one :)

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  15. It's fantastic!! You'll just have to make another 2 and then there won't be any more arguments.

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  16. OK. I am most impressed at the ingenuity of using cardboard as the filling. We have bean bags here, one of which started life as a cube-shaped cube, but the pellets squeeze down and have all but disappeared. This is such a good (and cheap) idea; please let me know how it's looking in 6 months time, will you?

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  17. This is brilliant! It looks very effective and making it from cardboard is ingenious. In the secondary school where I work Rubik's cubes have become popular again with some students, and I'm always impressed to see them solving them at high speed :)
    Cathy x

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  18. Wow, you did a great job on that! I am sure it will be a cherished item made by mom for a long time. I'm back from New Orleans, it sure was fun! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  19. Wow! Jill your creativity and ingenuity knows no bounds! Absolutely fantastic! X

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  20. So clever! And it's such a pop on the eye! Love it :) I might give my hand a go at this some time if I'm game (rookie crocheter over here). Thanks for sharing! Hope you have a great weekend!

    Bernadette x

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  21. That is such a cool seat! What a creative mind you have. Judy X

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  22. This is hands down the most creative crochet project ever! You rock Lady! Your kids are so lucky:)

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  23. This is hands down the most creative crochet project ever! You rock Lady! Your kids are so lucky:)

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Jillxxxxx