Curlique

Curliques are the secret weapon of crocheters when it comes to making decorations by either adding them to crochet pumpkins, making Christmas garlands or even adding roses to another piece like table runners.

They look like a curly tail or a corkscrew and are very simple and quick to make!

To make a curlique:

• make a slipknot,

• chain 20 loops (or more if you want it to be longer)

• make two half-double crochet stitches (HDCs) in the third loop from the end.

• continue by making 3 HDCs in every loop until the end

• remove the crochet hook

• make a knot to secure the curlique

That's it!

You may want to experiment by making single crochet or double crochet stitches instead of HDCs to modulate the thickness, adding another row of single crochets in another colour as a border, or making more than 3 stitches in the same loop from the foundation row.

These options will of course depend on the thickness of the yarn you are using. Thinner yarns will allow you to make more than 3 stitches but will have many holes if you use DCs, while thicker yarns won't allow you to make many stitches in the same loop.

I used chunky yarn in the curlique in the photo and I attached it to a pumpkin! (see the pumpkin pattern here).