A long tapering spiral in bands of colour, wide and fanned at the top, narrowing to a thin curl at the bottom, with a faceted crystal hanging beneath it. Put it in a window or under a porch and it turns slowly in any breeze, which is the whole appeal.
It works differently from the chunky spirals I usually make. This one is worked in fine cotton thread so it stays light enough to spin, and the shape comes from working rows of different lengths rather than from stitch height. The top end gets every colour band. The bottom end gets only two or three. That difference in width is what makes it fan out at the top and taper to a tail.
There is no wire in this one, deliberately. Wire holds a shape but it also kills the spin.
What you’ll need
Size 3 crochet cotton in five or six shades. I’ve made it in white, pale blue, soft green, buttery yellow and turquoise, and in a warm version with white, cream, lilac, orange and marigold. Both look completely different from the same instructions. Around 20 g of each is plenty.
A 2.5 mm hook.
You’ll also want a faceted glass crystal or chandelier drop with a hole or loop, a few small glass beads, strong nylon thread or fishing line for hanging, fabric stiffener, rustproof pins, and a blocking mat or a folded towel.
Finished length is about 55 cm from the hanging beads to the bottom of the crystal, and the widest part of the fan is around 14 cm.
Abbreviations are US terms. ch is chain, sl st is slip stitch, sc is single crochet, hdc is half double crochet, dc is double crochet, inc is two stitches in one, sp is space.
How the shape works
Read this before you start, because the row instructions will make far more sense afterwards.
Row 1 is worked into a long chain with two stitches per chain. That extra stitch has nowhere to go, so the strip twists into a helix on its own. That gives you the spiral.
Every row after that is worked along the outer edge of the previous one, and each one is shorter than the last at the tail end only. You always start at the top end and stop early at the bottom. So the top accumulates all six bands and grows wide, while the bottom keeps only the first one or two and stays narrow.
The taper is not shaped. It is simply the rows running out.
The spiral
In white, ch 120. Keep it relaxed and don’t let it twist as you count.
Row 1. Ch 2, which does not count as a stitch. Work 2 dc into the third chain from the hook and 2 dc into every chain across (240). Do not fasten off. It will already be curling hard in your lap. Let it.
Row 2. Turn and work sc into every stitch across the full length (240). This row feels awkward because the work is coiling. Follow the curve with your hands rather than fighting it flat. Fasten off.
Change to pale blue and rejoin at the top end.
Row 3. Ch 2, then work 1 dc into each stitch, adding an extra dc into every fourth stitch, and stop when you have 60 stitches left unworked at the tail. Fasten off.
Change to soft green and rejoin at the top end.
Row 4. Work sc into each stitch, adding an extra sc into every fifth stitch, and stop with 100 stitches left unworked at the tail. Fasten off.
Change to yellow and rejoin at the top end.
Row 5. Ch 2, then dc into each stitch, adding an extra dc into every fourth stitch, and stop with 140 stitches left unworked. Fasten off.
Change to turquoise and rejoin at the top end.
Row 6. Work sc into each stitch, adding an extra sc into every fifth stitch, and stop with 170 stitches left unworked. Fasten off.
Change to white and rejoin at the very top.
Row 7. This is the edging, and it runs all the way around the entire outer edge of the whole piece, including down the short colour bands and along the long tail. Work sl st, ch 2, sl st into the same stitch, repeated into every second stitch the whole way round. Fasten off and weave in every end.
The white outline is what pulls the whole thing together visually. Without it the colour bands look like they end abruptly, and with it they look intentional.
Blocking, which is most of the work
Straight off the hook this will look like a crumpled rag. Do not judge it yet.
Soak the piece in fabric stiffener, squeeze out the excess and lay it on your blocking mat. Now pin it out as a flat spiral, opening the coils and pinning the outer edge of each turn so the whole thing lies as a flat curl. Stretch the fan at the top so all the colour bands show, and pull the tail out long and thin.
Leave it pinned until it is bone dry. This takes a day, sometimes two in a damp house.
When you unpin it and lift it by the top, it will drop into a three dimensional helix and hold that shape by itself. That transformation is the entire trick of this project and it happens in the blocking, not on the hook.
Hanging it
Thread two or three small glass beads onto strong nylon line and knot them so they sit in a stack.
Attach the line to the very top point of the fan, going through the same stitch twice and knotting firmly. This is a single small point carrying everything, so do not be casual about it.
At the bottom, tie the crystal to the last stitch of the tail with a short length of the same line. The crystal is not decoration only. Its weight is what keeps the spiral hanging straight instead of drifting sideways, and it makes the piece spin more evenly.
Hang it and give it a gentle turn with your finger. It should keep going for a few seconds and settle without wobbling. If it wobbles, your top attachment point is off centre and moving it one stitch usually fixes it.
Colourways
The row instructions never change. Only the yarn does, and it changes the piece completely.
The cool version is the one in the main photos. Work row 1 and 2 in white, row 3 in pale blue, row 4 in soft green, row 5 in buttery yellow, row 6 in turquoise and the picot edge in white. It reads as sky and water and it suits a shaded porch or a north facing window.
The warm version uses white for rows 1 and 2, lilac for row 3, cream for row 4, burnt orange for row 5, marigold for row 6 and marigold again for the picot edge instead of white. Edging this one in marigold rather than white is the single most important change. A white outline makes the warm shades look washed out, whereas the marigold outline pulls the whole thing together and makes the orange core glow. Hang it with a champagne or amber crystal rather than a clear one and it throws warm light instead of white.
For the warm version I also work the coils a little tighter and keep the fan at the top narrower, which suits the shorter colour range. Do that by stopping row 3 with 70 stitches unworked instead of 60, and row 4 with 110 instead of 100. The taper then starts higher up and the piece reads as a slim twist rather than a wide shell.
A single colour version in cream with a white edge is very elegant and much quicker, since you can work every row full length.
Make the two versions as a pair and hang them side by side at slightly different heights. They read as a set even though the colours have nothing in common, because the shape is identical.
Notes and variations
Colour choice matters more here than in almost anything else I make. Pick shades that sit next to each other rather than colours that contrast, because the bands are narrow and high contrast makes them look stripy rather than blended.
For an outdoor version, use a proper outdoor fabric stiffener rather than starch. Starch softens in the first heavy dew and your spiral will droop by the second morning.
Make a shorter one by starting with a chain of 80 and stopping the rows proportionally earlier. Two or three at staggered lengths hanging together looks better than one on its own.
Questions I get asked
How long does it take? About five hours of crochet plus a day of drying. The drying is not optional and it is not shortenable.
Why does mine not hold its shape? Almost always underdone stiffener or unpinning too early. Feel the thickest part of the fan. If it is even slightly cool to the touch it is still damp.
Can I use wire instead of stiffener? You can, but it will barely spin afterwards. If the piece is going somewhere with no breeze and you want it purely decorative, wire is fine. For an actual wind chime, stiffen it.
Can I use DK cotton instead of thread? Yes, and it will be quicker, but it will be much heavier and will need a bigger crystal to hang straight. It also spins more sluggishly.