Cat Mad Crochet

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

In my ongoing television and film search for crochet, I am happy to report that season two of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has significantly more crochet than season one. There is so much more that I am not going to do the whole season in one post. So let’s start off with the first three episodes in season 2, “The Homecoming”, “The Circle”, and “The Siege”.

The first time I watched DS9 years ago, I was struck by the vest Kira wears in episode two, “The Circle”. I thought it was crochet then but I wasn’t sure. Finding it and deciding if it was crochet was part of the reason I started rewatching this series now. I was so happy to find it while watching this time, while, at the same time, amused by how I utterly changed the stitch pattern in my memory. 

Here is the vest as it appears. I took lots of pictures.

I still maintain this is crocheted. I feel like I can see the tops of the single crochets worked along the edges of the open lace pattern in the vest. It also makes sense for the show because it is mostly Bajorans who wear crochet, and Kira, if you’re familiar with the show, obviously, is Bajoron. The funny part, to me, is that I remember the stitch pattern more like this:

To be fair, this stitch pattern would work for this vest. You just need a stitch pattern worked in chains with single crochets worked over the chains to create an overall design. This stitch pattern does that, even if it is far from the look of the original. I found this pattern in Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia by Robyn Chachula. It is called “Ella”. If you want to recreate this vest, this stitch pattern would look very interesting as any sort of garment.

The second stitch pattern I would recommend if you wanted to recreate this vest comes from the same book and is called the “Diamond Flower” pattern. It, too, has a highly structured look with stitches worked around chains. Either stitch pattern would give you the look of the original. The vest itself isn’t overly fitted. If you can work out an edge increase for your chosen stitch pattern, you should be able to accomplish the neck and armhole shaping of the original vest.

But wait there’s more! The more Bajoran people in everyday situations appear in the series, the more crochet we see. This man, though the picture is terrible, is in a long crocheted vest. Through this season, there are a lot of Bajorans in long, flowing vests. They are not fitted and so could fit a lot of body types, which I believe they do. I’ve been noticing that a vest I see on a man in one episode will be worn by a woman who paired it with a belt a few episodes later. This is good use of one’s costuming department as it reuses something that had to be handmade, but it also establishes a sort of cultural continuity for the Bajorans clothing. Anyway, this is our first view of the long, purple vest.

If you wanted to recreate this one, I would recommend using the “Vertical Band of Shells” pattern from The New Crochet Stitch Dictionary.

It would give the open spaces look of the original without being an exact copy. If ripples are your thing, you might try the “Rippling Shell” pattern from the Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary. It has the open spaces you see in the purple vest, but, unlike many ripple patterns, can be easily manipulated along the edge to create a v shaped front opening and armholes.

In the same crowd as the man wearing the purple vest, I spotted a man in a blue sweater/vest sort of thing. 

The pattern on this garment, which doesn’t come through overly well in my picture, is more of a basic mesh. Many mesh stitches are easily able to be manipulated to create the perfect fit. Given the sort of simple look of this mesh, I think something like the “Simple Trellis Pattern” from The New Crochet Stitch Dictionary would make a good start at replicating this pattern.

Because I can never do anything the easy way, I have to also recommend that you might try a more fantastical grid pattern like the “Net of Flowers”, also from The New Crochet Stitch Dictionary. 

I realize this pattern is all counting and the internal increasing and decreasing require serious thought and intention to get right, but it can be done and it would make an amazing garment.

The amount of crochet in DS9 is picking up! I hope to bring you lots and lots of other fun examples before the Jem’hadar arrive and the plot becomes about fighting them off instead of Bajorans in cultural settings.