Alpha pattern #43834 variation #136878

#43834

vilka895

Dimensions

20x22

Strings

Colors

Rate Pattern

Add a photo

Add a video

100.0% (11 ratings)

eyeball eye mushroom mystical creepy

11 Similar patterns

#9416

20x20

100.0% by alyse13

#41358

11x39

79.7% by its_jesus

#53672

13x13

100.0% by Cristinart

#59584

19x19

87.5% by TheOdini

#106313

16x83

100.0% by sodapop

#121500

17x17

100.0% by punkmomof2

#126696

21x35

100.0% by grungemilk

#143310

19x19

100.0% by KrazyKnotz

#172932

23x23

100.0% by Crybaby_Sp

#135384

14x86

100.0% by dracula

#177414

43x55

254

100.0% by psychonaut

2 Photos

#43834

by Greenie

#43834

by amais127

4 Comments

You have to be Logged in to post a comment.

Greenie	1 week, 6 days ago by Greenie Finished 1/11/2026! Oh MAN did I shoot for the moon on this one. This was an absolute beast. I did an obscene amount of number shuffling to get the tapered start that I wanted, I used glittery thread (that was too short!) to accentuate the big eyeball, I dabbled in the two-tone alpha technique so that I wouldn't have to add in black thread for only five knots, I used the flat end alpha technique for the first time, and by the time I was doing the last row it looked like something Dexter would have put together if he only had access to a twelve year old tomboy's junk drawer. Just for this project, I've added like four different tools to my craft basket. I'M SO TIRED. I learned so much and I AM SO TIRED. I must have started this a month or two ago? This is actually the first project that I ever started on a soda tab, shoutout again to @Julie798 for your picture on #147891. The tapered start was completely experimental, and I should have just modified the normal triangle start technique for alphas. My method was to group the base strings into 8 little bundles; 2 strings on the two outermost bundles on both sides, and 3 strings on the middle four bundles. I don't even know how to explain how I eventually separated the strings, I have a little diagram and it makes no sense. But by row 7, all the base strings were distributed and I was following the pattern like normal (for the most part). I decided to use the clean back technique for this one because it was going to end up being a keychain. This is my first time using the clean back technique! You can see me crawling up the learning curve as the project wears on. At the top, the back is still chaos despite my best efforts. Towards the bottom I think I finally got it together. I mapped out where I'd add in all the colors, and this is where I had the thought that I just didn't want to deal with carrying a black string all over hither and yon for just five measly knots. Enter the two-tone alpha technique! Absolute slay for me. That's partly why I chose black for the base strings I think, I don't remember. I got to row 11 and was so thrilled to be halfway done that I put the project down for a few days. Or weeks, time isn't real. Whenever it was that I picked it back up, everything was going so well, and then. MY HUBRIS. It got the better of me. I had been using the smallest pair of scissors I could find to cut the stray strings off the back, but around the time I had to add in the colors for the stem, I thought I figured out a neat little trick to avoid having those loose ends altogether. I tied them in like normal a few rows before I'd need them, and before I actually started knotting with them, I figured, why not pull them just enough so that the tail doesn't peek out from the previous rows? Kids, don't do this. The whole string popped out when I tried to knot with them. Despair. And I wasn't gonna go back and undo all those knots, with multiple other strings hidden in them, just to put them back. So this is when I think I really figured something out. I just added the string in like normal, and then when I came back to that spot on the next row, I folded the tail over and treated it like a base string. Boom secure, and hidden like the perfect secret. I don't think I'd count on this method, but it'll definitely work in a pinch. Or if you decide that you don't like the color you chose when you started the project and tied it in two rows ago. Had to do that for the underside of the mushroom cap and I like this color much better. This is where I learned a little something about contrast and how things read at different scales. After finishing the underside of the mushroom cap, everything mellowed out a lot. I liked doing the grass! I didn't like doing the stem as much, but that's because there were a lot of color changes (not that you can tell, unless the light hits it at just the right angle) and I didn't exactly remember how I did them and I didn't want to go back and watch the tutorials because whatever I was doing was working well enough. Row 20 is the third to last row, and this is where you start doubling up the base strings for the flat end technique. Again, I channel Dexter. I put my keychain facedown and a piece of painter's tape over it, sticky side up. then I made sure all my base strings were in order as I stuck the ends of each one to the painter's tape, and then folded the tape over itself, and used an oversized hair barrette to hold the loops in place, so I didn't have to do each one individually (because the base strings were already barely long enough as it was). None of my loops ended up longer than an inch, so I used some old bobby pins that had gone crooked to give me more surface area to hold as I tied my strings over them. Now I wanted to just leave all the strings and cut them all off at the end because I thought it would be more fun and also because the smallest scissors I had weren't small enough to make me happy with the result, but it got SO unmanageable. I was going to use a nail clipper to get the strings, but then I went for my nippers? Those work like an absolute dream. I'm gonna have to get a pair exclusively for crafting. I was having fun with my gorgeous clean keychain and just finishing up the flat end when I ran into a loop that wouldn't budge. I didn't want to pull it from the loop because I didn't want to pull the base string clean out of its knots, so I put a bobby pin on it and tried pulling the tail. No dice. My fingers were sore from working on it for a few hours straight and that probably wasn't helping my grip so I stopped trying for a while, but I did keep looking at it because I was so proud. Why rotate something in your mind when you can make it in real life and rotate it before your very eyes. I ended up using some tweezers to pull the tails through, and to help tie the knots on the final row, and a bobby pin to help manage all the loops and tails. The tweezers were kinda sharp and tore the base strings sometimes, which meant I couldn't pull them all the way shut. What I couldn't pull through, I hid under the loops next to it and secured them by pulling those loops shut all the way. So the bottom didn't end up as neat as I thought it would, but I'm still happy with it. I've thrown this project in a few bags and carried it around with me for a while, and I think that might have messed with the integrity of the base strings and contributed to this happening? Hard to say. I saw that it was a bit dingy once it was all cleaned up, so I wet it in the sink and scrubbed a few drops of dish soap over it with my fingers. I think that brightened it up good as new and also helped it a bit to lay flat, because this thing was curved like a spoon and stiff as a board when I first finished it, probably because my knots were so tight. If I was doing laundry I might have thrown it in the dryer because I was afraid of the soda tab rusting, but I just left it under a candle warmer for a bit. Now, it's mostly flat except for a few small wrinkles. I could try putting it under some heavy books or ironing it, but I'm happy enough with it as it is.
lianih07	5 years, 3 months ago by lianih07 This so cute I love it sm!!!
emshum7	5 years, 7 months ago by emshum7 this is sick
kiiwi	5 years, 7 months ago by kiiwi wait i love this

Variations

Alpha pattern #43834 variation #136878