Crochet Curly Cue Sampler – How to Choose the Best Curl

As you may or may not have noticed, I’ve been on a bit of a blog break lately.
Mostly because I traveled overseas with LM, and came back with a bad case
of the jet lags. After that, it’s just taken me a while to get going again, but
hopefully, I’ll find my groove in time for spring! Because yeah, I was hanging
out on the hammock this afternoon, instead of being cooped inside a house
watching it snow outside. Sunny California right?
This is a quickie post. I’ve gotten a few comment and questions about the
crochet curly cues that make up my crochet unicorn’s tail, and to be honest,
I had a bit of a hard time figuring out exactly how I wanted the tail to look. I
didn’t really want super stubby curls but I didn’t want long stringy ones
either. I realized what I needed was a curly cue sampler that I could
reference next time I wanted a specific length and shape. So here it is!

I started out all of them by crocheting 23 chains. 23 you say? (Yup, I’m a

sucker for prime numbers. I also like the number 47.) Then, you can choose to
crochet 2, 3 or 4 stitches into each chain across the row before fastening off
and completing the curly cue.

 
As you can see in the photos above and below, increasing the number of
stitches in each chain tightens the curl. The type of stitch (single, half double,
double) defines the curl’s overall width.
Here’s 3 curls in the following order: 2 single crochet in each chain across, 2
hdc in each chain across, 2 dc in each chain across. See how the curls are
fairly loose, but the width of the curl is wider?
This set below is: 3 sc in each ch across, 3 hdc in each ch across and 3 dc in
each ch across. The curlie cues are tighter than the ones above.

And following the same pattern, below is: 4 sc in each ch across, 4 hdc in
each ch across, and 4 dc in each chain across.  I found these to be a lot of fun
– lots of tight curls!
I honestly don’t remember how long my 23 chains were, but the final curly
cues are all in the 4 to 5 inch range, depending on how scrunched up you
want them to be. For the unicorn tail, I think I used a combination of “3 hdc
in each ch” and “4 sc in each ch”, starting with between 20 and 30 chains. I
also ‘mussed’ up the curl a bit to give it a roly poly fat look, but that’s up to
you.
I hope you find this reference helpful the next time you want to crochet up
some curly cues, like for my
Pour faire les yeux des  amigurumi
J’ai vu ces tutos pour apprendre à faire les yeux des amigurumi…Du
coup j’ai pensé à vous, bien sûr !

Servez vous !