What does it look like to crochet as collaboratively and closely and as simultaneously as possible on the same item?

I had never heard of anyone trying this, so I asked the Bay Area Crochet Group that I have met with occasionally if they'd be interested in an adventure. They were game and put my idea on the program.

I had some idea how we might get started but I couldn't see too far in my imagination of what this would look like so I encouraged them to jump in however they saw fit. They did and we figured out a lot about how this could work and we had fun!

We started by chaining anywhere from 20 to maybe 100 chains. We all happened to be right-handed so we passed our chains to our right. Then we started crocheting into the chain handed to us by the person on our left. We just wanted to see how this would work so everyone was free to do whatever stitch they wanted.

In the picture below, hopefully you can see the continuous chain flowing around the circle. We chose different colors per person just so we could watch what happened.

The next several pictures show people crocheting into the chains passed to them. These all happened at about the same time.

As the circle went around the group, we each got to crochet on top of more than just the chain. We got to crochet on top of what the previous person had added to the crochet. At some point, some of us (who shall remain nameless) were playfully sabotaging the person down the line from them with the stitches they injected.

With this large of a circle, everyone didn't have to crochet at the same speed. It was easy enough to stop for a minute and pick up again.

For this first time, we ended up with a rather large circular ribbon of crochet that could turn into an 8-circle scarf.

Ideas for next time:

We could start with a rectangle or some shape and get a lot closer and add onto that. Sit "thigh to thigh" as one person commented.

If we manage the twists at the beginning, we could conceivably make a cylinder or a cone or pup tent.

It could be easy for people to come and go by tying off their yarn or adding in.

This could be done easily as a collaborative scrumble. Or with more planning, a more defined shape could be created.

Try it! Share on ravelry if you can! We'd love to hear about it!

Thanks to my friend Terry for taking the pictures so I could play!