This is going to be a fairly general pattern, to allow you to make these test tubes and rack in whatever pride flag colours you want. I will demonstrate using the aromantic flag, which has 5 stripes. The process is exactly the same for any other 5-stripe flag, just with different coloured test tubes, but the rack itself will have to be adjusted for flags containing a different number of stripes.
In this pattern I have specified making all of the test tubes exactly the same, but you may wish to add some variety by altering the ratio of coloured rounds to white rounds, as long as the total number of straight rounds adds up to 24 (eg. you could do rows 2 - 15 in a colour, then rows 16-25 in white) (this will probably make more sense when you see the pattern)
Difficulty:
Medium
(the crochet is very easy but there is a fair amount of construction required for the test tube rack)
You will need:
- Some corrugated cardboard
- 5-6 long barbeque skewers
- A 2.5mm crochet hook
- dk yarn in dark brown, white, and the colours of your pride flag (for the aromantic flag you will need black, grey, light green, and darker green)
- A glue gun (PVA glue may also work)
- A darning needle
- A pencil
- A pair of compasses (the ones used for drawing circles)
- A craft knife
Tension:
The tension required by this pattern is 9sts x 11 rows per 5cm square. This doesn't really matter for the test tubes, but it will matter for the rack, since if your tension is too loose or tight the crochet will not fit neatly around the cardboard.
For the test tubes (make 1 in each of the colours of your flag):
With the coloured yarn make a magic loop with 6scRound 1: (sc in the first st, make 2sc in the next st) 3 times (9sc)
Rounds 2 - 13: (12 rounds) sc in each st
Fasten off neatly
Rejoin with white yarn
Rounds 14 - 25: (12 rounds) sc in each st
Round 26: (sc2, make 2sc in the next st) 3 times (12sc)
Round 27: (sc2, sc2tog) 3 times (9sc)
Stuff firmly
Round 28: sc2tog 6 times
Fasten off neatly
For the rack:
For the top (make 2):
With brown dk yarn ch12
With brown dk yarn ch12
Row 1: sc in the 2nd chain st from hook and the next 10 chain sts. ch1, turn (11sc)
Row 2: sc in each of these sts. ch1, turn
Row 3: sc3, sc2tog. ch1, turn (4sc)
Row 4: sc2tog, sc2. chq, turn (3sc)
Rows 5 - 7: (3 rows) sc in each of these 3 sts. ch1, turn
Row 8: make 2sc in the first st, sc2
Fasten off
Rejoin yarn to row 2 to the 2nd st from this section you just made
Row 3: sc2tog between this st and the next, sc3. ch1, turn (4sc)
Row 4: sc2, sc2tog. ch1, turn
Rows 5 - 7: (3 rows) sc in each st. ch1, turn
Row 8: sc2, make 2sc in the next st
Fasten off
Rejoin yarn to the end st of one of these sts
Row 9: sc3, make 2sc in the next st, ch1, make 2sc in the first st of the next section (as shown below), sc3. ch1, turn
Row 10: sc in each st. ch1, turn
---
Row 11: sc in each st. ch1, turn
Row 12: sc in each of these sts. ch1, turn
Row 13: sc3, sc2tog. ch1, turn (4sc)
Row 14: sc2tog, sc2. chq, turn (3sc)
Rows 15 - 17: (3 rows) sc in each of these 3 sts. ch1, turn
Row 18: make 2sc in the first st, sc2
Fasten off
Rejoin yarn to row 12 to the 2nd st from this section you just made
Row 13: sc2tog between this st and the next, sc3. ch1, turn (4sc)
Row 14: sc2, sc2tog. ch1, turn
Rows 15 - 17: (3 rows) sc in each st. ch1, turn
Row 18: sc2, make 2sc in the next st
Fasten off
Rejoin yarn to the end st of one of these sts
Row 19: sc3, make 2sc in the next st, ch1, make 2sc in the first st of the next section, sc3. ch1, turn
Row 20: sc in each st. ch1, turn
---
Row 21: sc in each st. ch1, turn
Row 22: sc in each of these sts. ch1, turn
Row 23: sc3, sc2tog. ch1, turn (4sc)
Row 24: sc2tog, sc2. chq, turn (3sc)
Rows 25 - 27: (3 rows) sc in each of these 3 sts. ch1, turn
Row 28: make 2sc in the first st, sc2
Fasten off
Rejoin yarn to row 12 to the 2nd st from this section you just made
Row 23: sc2tog between this st and the next, sc3. ch1, turn (4sc)
Row 24: sc2, sc2tog. ch1, turn
Rows 25 - 27: (3 rows) sc in each st. ch1, turn
Row 28: sc2, make 2sc in the next st
Fasten off
Rejoin yarn to the end st of one of these sts
Row 29: sc3, make 2sc in the next st, ch1, make 2sc in the first st of the next section, sc3. ch1, turn
Row 30: sc in each st. ch1, turn
---
You should be able to see that these previous 2 section are exactly the same. You should continue to add these sections until you have the required number of holes (corresponding to the number of stripes in you pride flag). Eg for the aromantic flag you should add 2 more of these sections.
Row the final row (row 51 for the aromantic flag): sc in each st
Fasten off
For the bottom (make 2):
With brown yarn ch12
Row 1: sc in the 2nd chain st from hook, then sc in each of the following 10 chain sts. ch1, turn (11sc)
For each subsequent row: sc in each st. ch1, turn
For the final row: sc in each st
Fasten off
The number of rows on this section will depend on the number of stripes in your flag, and on the tension in your cardboad. In an ideal world This should equal the number of rows in your top section (so fro the aromantic flag you would use 51 rows), but I found that this made the crochet slightly longer than the cardboard. Therefore once you cut our your cardboard you may need to unravel a few rows to make it fit nicely (I only needed 48 rows)
For the sides (make 4):
With dark brown yarn ch4
With dark brown yarn ch4
Round 1: sc in the first chain st you made, then sc in each of the following 3 chain sts to make a loop (4sc)
Rounds 2 - 12: (11 rounds) sc in each st
Fasten off
To make up:
First you will need to cut out the cardboard sections.
Cut out 2 cardboard rectangles with a 5cm width and a length equal to 4*the number of stripes you have in your flag.. Eg. for the aromantic flag the rectangle would be 5x20cm (It has 5 stripes and 20 = 4*5)
You will then need to divide one of these rectangles up into 5*4cm rectangles. In the centre of these rectangles you should use your compasses to draw a circle with a radius of 1.25cm. After you've done this you should cut out each of these circles using a craft knife.
Next you need to cut the barbeque skewers to length. You will need to cut 4 of each of the following lengths: 6cm, ~3.5cm, however long your lengths of cardboard are (20cm for the aromantic flag)
Use a glue gun to glue the longer (eg. 20cm) lengths to the sides of the topand bottom cardboard sections, as shown below. Glue the 3.5cm sections to the ends of these cardboard sections in between the longer skewer sections.
You will then need to glue one of the 6cm sections onto each of the corners of the bottoms cardboard section, so that they point upwards at 90 degrees.
After this you should sew the crocheted sections of the bottom of the rack around the cardboard sections.
Once you have done this you should push the crocheted side sections over the ends of the 6cm sections of barbeque skewers, such that the ends of the skewers are clearly visible. Sew the bottom end of the crocheted side sections to the crochet of the bottom of the rack.
Once you have done this you will need to glue the top of each of the 6cm sections to the underside of the top section of the rack.
Finally you need to sew the top crocheted sections around the cardboard section. Sew around the edge first, then Sew the two sections together through the holes in the cardboard. You also need to sew the tops of the crocheted section of the sides to the bottom of this top section.
Once you've finished the rack all that's left to do is to place your test tubes in there in the order they appear in the flag.
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| These test tubes are made in the colours of the genderqueer flag. |
I hope you enjoyed this pattern. If you did please think about having a look at some of the other patterns in my LGBTQ+ pride collection (see the 'labels' section on the right-hand side of the page). If you have any questions or comments about this or any of my other patterns, please feel free to contact me, either by leaving a comment below or via my Ravelry or Instagram pages.
You are very welcome to sell finished products, but I do ask that you don't re-post this pattern or claim it as your own. Thank you!!!
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