Materials:
Red Heart Super Saver Value Yarn. Any 100% acrylic yarn will do.
*Pro tip: You don't want to use natural fibers like cotton or bamboo for this because they won't fray the way you want them to, they kinda shred. We basically want to produce fuzz that won't fall apart when you touch it and plastic-y acrylic yarns work best. So work with that crappy poly-blend trash yarn I know you have tucked away in a closet somewhere. Turn it into something awesome!
Scissors (Sharp ones. The long kind are recommended.)
A flat ruler (The one in the pics is a soft one, but I'll address that in a later post)
A dog grooming brush (I bought mine for $2.77 at Walmart)
Up ahead I'm going to be using photos from my Poppy Crochet Hat pattern available in my Etsy shop. If you want the full pattern with all the goodies in it, you can always find it in my TOPstitches Crochet shop.
Step 1:
You’re going to take the Shocking Pink yarn and measure/snip a piece about 8.5” long.
Step 2:
Measure and cut about a BILLION more. I’m not going to lie, I did not count how many of these strands I used for the hat because that would break my brain--and probably yours, too. So, here's what I did: I cut about 20 strands at a time, filled the hat as much as I could with hair, then continued to make more fluffs as I went around the hat. By the end, I suspect I cut somewhere in the range of 200-300 strands.
Note: as a rule, the 3-strand fluff covers about 3/8" of surface area once it's attached to whatever you're crocheting. I'll assume you're attaching it to a crochet scalp of some kind, since this is supposed to be a hair tutorial and let's hope you're planning to put this troll hair on a troll head.
Aaaanyway, the 2-strand fluff covers slightly less surface area than the 3-strand, sitting at around 1/4" of area covered with each fluff. It also produces a thinner look when you're finished. So calculate how many fluffs you need by basically looking at how much space you have to cover and guessing.
It's easy to make more fluffs if you don't have enough later, and if you have too many, you just did a bunch of work for nothing! Ha! It's okay, just save them in a Ziploc bag. I bet you can find something to do with them eventually. :)
Step 3:
Once you have a batch of yarn strands made, pull aside three of them to make a 3-strand fluff. (The 2-strand approach is far too advanced for you people, so I won't even bother trying to explain it. I could tell you that you just use 2-strands of yarn instead of 3, but that would be oversimplifying it).
Gather the three strands into a tidy bundle and fold them in half to form a loop
Now take one end and pass it through the loop
(No, I’m not a ninja; I did not do this one-handed, I had to take the picture! Use both hands, goofball.) Pull on both ends of the yarn to make a knot. Make sure this knot is centered before you tighten it.
Step 4:
Now, make enough pieces to fill up whatever space you're working on. For each troll hat, I make approximately 100-150 of these -- or, at least, it feels that way. In the pattern, I think I say to make 60 fluffs, but I've made so many troll hats since then that I'm convinced there has to be at least 100 on each hat. Just make a butt-ton, okay? Just so many.
Step 5:
Next we’re going to fray these yarn pieces into “fluffs.” Now’s the time to get out that dog brush!
First, hold the pieces of yarn down at the center knot. Work on a hard surface that you don’t mind getting scratched up. I used a composition notebook. And if you’re worried about the sanctity of your soft, supple skin, you may want to wear a pair of gardening gloves because you WILL get scratched when we do this.
Just think about how much you love your kid (or whoever) while you’re doing this. How happy he, or she, will be . . . not the blood. Don’t think about the blood.
Only fray the yarn in bunches of 3-4 at a time. Starting at the ends of the yarn, begin to brush in a light, tapping motion. Do not use long strokes; this is not a cat, or dog. :P The goal is to make the yarn unravel from the tips toward the knot you made at the center. As you work, if it starts to feel like things are snagging or dragging too much, you need to clear the brush (more details on this below) of fluff that gets congested in the bristles, and begin brushing from the tips again.
Be sure to flip your pieces over to brush the backside as well! Brush aaaallll the way up to the center knot.
Then, rotate the yarn piece and fray the other side as well using the same technique!
When you’re finished, the fluffs should look like this:
After every batch of fluffs you make (so every 3 bundles) you will want to clear your brush.
You’re going to end up with a ball of useless fluffy stuff about the size of a newborn baby when you’re done with this. You can always use it for stuffing as so many of my awesome customers have suggested. I also use it for needle felting. Makes decent roving!
Okie dokie, that should give you enough to do for a week!
This fluff stuff essentially is the troll hair, but in the next blog, I'll show you how to attach the fluffs to something else (a hat, an amigurumi toy, your kid's pillowcase, etc.).
We will go from a mass of fuzzy shenanigans to something even more spectacular:
