Where would my Merlin dolls be without the once and future king, Arthur Pendragon?
I’ve been simultaneously looking forward to and dreading Arthur, partly because of the many components of his costume and partly because metallic thread is horrible. It splits and shreds and frays and is generally the absolute worst to work with.
Happily though, I found a spool of metallic sewing thread which has worked perfectly for Arthur’s chainmail hauberk. It meant I didn’t have to separate the stands of DMC metallic threads or deal with knots, which was lovely, although it did mean that I had to finish one section before going on to another, which I’ve realised I don’t often do.
I also used a new stitch for Arthur’s quilted tunic, puff stitch, which was nice once I got the hang of it.
Until next time, C.
Crochet by Calla 
Calla, you really are an amazing young woman! We won’t even go into how talented you are. I have 3 kids and my youngest is maybe a couple of years older than you. She’ll be 28 in January.
But I was reading something you wrote on deviantart.com about things you like to do and make and how true to the character and his/her embellishments you like to be. Then I can over here and saw your Arthur. Now . . . mind you . . . had you named the post ANYTHING else besides CHAINMAIL, this idea would have NEVER occurred to me! It would have been REALLY cool if you had, instead of crocheting his chainmail hauberk, you had actually CHAINMAILED IT! AWWWH! HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE!?!?! (rhetorical question . . .) Granted you would have to use VERY small diameter jump rings, and a VERY fine gauge of wire. If you used half hard wire, I’m not sure you could have sufficiently hardened it to keep it from being to fragile. However, were you to use full hard wire in a small enough gauge (maybe a 32g?) and then made the jump rings small enough, have trouble thinking of what you could use as mandrel that would have a small enough diameter, for no more than you would have to bend the jump rings to just open and close them, once made, even with a very fine gauge full hard wire, I don’t think you would have trouble, very little anyway, with snapping the wire from overworking. But made with full hard wire his hauberk should be firm enough that it could easily be handle gently and with care, but yet not have to worry about it collapsing in your hands! That would be SO AWESOME! OH! WAIT! I JUST thought of it! A large diameter TATTING NEEDLE would probably be just about perfect! Stiff enough it wouldn’t bend as you wrapped the wire, long enough you could hold onto it easily while you wrapped the wire, and still big enough in diameter! I have a set of Handy Hand’s Tatting Needles in what they call the “thread size” and they also have a set called “yarn”. The thread set has a #8(ex. fine), #7(fine), #5-0, and #3-0. Funny how they label the #8 and #7 as extra fine and fine, but don’t seem to label the #5-0 or the #3-0. The #3-0 has the largest diameter which is similar diameter as a I believe a #7 pencil lead for a retractable pencil. They sell it at Wal Mart or any other office supply store. Not that you need the pencil lead for what we’re talking about here! 😉 It’s either the #7 or the #5 lead, whichever is the thickest. Anyway, the “yarn” set of tatting needles comes with a #2-0, #1-0, and a #0-0 . . . again, no “extra” labeling on those that I can tell. I don’t have a set of those and I’ve never seen a set in person, so I can’t being to give you any idea on how thick they are, but still, I think you get the idea! Whatever you used you would have to make sure that the inner diameter of the jump ring that you made would be large enough to accommodate the outer diameter of at LEAST two jump rings and probably as many as 4-6 at a time, and still allowing supple movement of all the rings so as not to damage the hauberk when completed as it moves when handled, basically, so the rings don’t get hung up! It would be a TREMENDOUS amount of work, but MAN when it was done . . . IT WOULD BE SO KICK BUTT AWESOME! It would have made the REAL King Arthur of ‘ole PROUD as a peacock! (hehehe!)
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