Cat Mad Crochet

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Here’s something fun I learned after finding so much crocheted clothing in Pushing Daisies: The costume designer, Robert Blackman, also designed for several of the Star Trek franchises among other things. I’ve noticed crochet in Star Trek before, so I decided to re-watch with a real eye toward crochet. I am part way through Deep Space Nine now (see, I do exercise nearly every day and watch while I do so), so I will show you what I found in season one. It is, sad to say, a bit disappointing. Future seasons are much richer with crochet. Please keep coming back, so I can show you what I found.

All of the following episodes are from season one. I have listed them by number and by title, so you can find them easily if you want to watch for yourself on a television with way better resolution than mine. If you find something I missed, send me a picture. I would love to see what you find.

Episode 3: Past Prologue

This was the first bit of crochet I spotted. It was among the merchandise in Garak’s shop. It looks to me like a simple mesh pattern scarf in a shimmery yarn. It goes by very quickly in a panning shot, and there wasn’t a good view of it. The shots I have are blurry and grainy, but I stand by this being crochet. I do wish people took showing off crochet in film and television more seriously and took long, contemplative shots of it. 

Because of my penchant for natural fibers, I would choose a cobweb to lace weight, silk yarn or a silk blend to recreate this. I know that likely makes it prohibitively expensive. It’s just a thought experiment. Perhaps in the vast future of Star Trek, silk is less expensive. Anyway, silk would give a nice shimmer while still being utterly compostable should that become relevant. 

It looks like a grid based on double crochets with several (maybe three) chains between each one. The next row offsets the stitches so the double crochets fall in the middle of the chain sections. I think these stitch patterns from The Crochet Stitch Bible by Betty Barden would be good choices if one wanted to recreate this scarf.

Honeycomb – I think this is the closest to what appears on the show. Is it fancy? Not really? Does it look cool anyway? Yes!

Crazy picot mesh-I would use this if you want to try something a little different but still have that crochet mesh feel going on. This could be very interesting with little puffed center circles sewn into the openings. Or full on flower motifs could be attached. That would be interesting, too.

Solomon’s knot-Now we’ve gone all fancy, but why not? Solomon’s knot is still a grid stitch, albeit a very fancy one. 

Whichever stitch pattern I chose, I would make this scarf about 15 to 20 inches wide so it would be able to be bunched up and cozy when worn without looking thin since a crochet grid in a yarn with great drape is going to collapse in a liquid but luscious pile of itself around one’s neck.  

Episode 19: Duet

I’m not 100% sure these are crocheted items, but hear me out. For the most part, crochet in Deep Space Nine only appears on Bajoran people or in Bajoran spaces. The people in the scene with possible crochet in Duet are Bajorans who were injured by a Cardasian mining accident. The Bajorans were a civilization overrun with Cardasians intent on killing them until peace was finally reached. They could not go to the store and pick up a new suit when they needed one. They needed to make their own clothing. Enter crochet. 

You only need a hook and some yarn to be able to make whatever you want with crochet. Don’t have yarn? You only need some fiber, carding combs, and a drop spindle and you can have yarn. Now before you say, yeah but remember how they couldn’t go to the store? Ancient people knew how to spin quite well, and they didn’t get their supplies at the store either. The Bajorans have a rich cultural heritage, so there is no reason that would not extend to textiles and their production.

So, I hear you thinking, why couldn’t they knit their clothing? They could. But I think crochet is a better fit for them as a culture because it can only be done by hand. That only by hand method really appeals to me as something the Bajorans would embrace. That probably says a lot more about me, but so be it. 

The Bajorans were just trying to survive and likely couldn’t set up a loom or other textile producing machine. They needed something that they could do on the move and exclusively by hand. But that could still be knitting, I hear you say. So let’s take the discussion out of the story and into the realm of the costumer. Crochet has literally 100s of stitch patterns that most people are unfamiliar with and, thus, they look, wait for it, ALIEN! We all know knitting. We would see a knitted item and understand it to be, if not knitted, at least a familiar fabric. Not so with crochet. A costumer could have items made in stitch patterns hidden in fascinating little stitch dictionaries that only a few people have seen. Crochet as the fabric of the alien. Yes. I like that.

Anyway, to the crochet!

There are two scarves/wraps that I think could be crochet, and I got tremendously bad pictures of both of them. If they aren’t crochet, they could be. If you choose to recreate one, you want to make sure to pick a fiber that allows lots of drape even with a fairly closed, textural stitch pattern (alpaca or merino would do the trick) and a thinner yarn preparation. Anything above sport weight is going to read as clunky and perhaps seem to be eating the wearer. And really, the Bajorans have been through enough without their clothes trying to suffocate them.

These stitch patterns from the Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary by Dora Ohrenstein would be perfect for these sorts of garments. Each of them has an interesting texture that looks unique. It’s not exactly what we see on the show, but a wrap made with one of these stitch patterns would be nicely inspired by the scarves/wraps on the show. 

Woven shells is a nice stitch pattern to recreate one of these scarf/shawls in because it is highly textured but not lacy. Lace is lovely and has its place, but not for someone trying to hide deformities from a mining accident.

I like puff stitches. They lend a lot of squish to a project without being a popcorn, a nupp, or a bobble. This would make an awesome stitch pattern for a scarf or a shawl even if you weren’t trying to recreate a DS9 look.

I love this stitch pattern. It’s soft and squishy and looks warm for cold weather wear. I cannot make it look right when I do it, but if you can, go for it! Send pictures so I can love it vicariously through your skillful stitches.