I’ve knit a lot of hats. No really, a lot. And there comes a point, on about half my hats, where part of my brain says ‘ooooooh that crown looks like a sea urchin.’ And normally I say ‘yes indeed’ and move quietly on with my day. But, not too long ago, something in my head snapped, and instead I said ‘ok, you keep seeing sea urchins everywhere, how about I just knit you a little pile of sea urchins and see if that helps.’

To be honest, I don’t know if it will cure me of my tendency to see echoes of sea creatures in my other knits. I suspect that it may not. That may just be a thing my brain tends to do. But it was an absolutely delightful diversion and resulted in one of the loveliest little piles of peculiarities I ever did see.

And while I would never presume that everyone shares my particular fondness for our spiny, briny little friends, I have a sneaking suspicion that at least a few of you do. If you’re the sort to come home from a beach stroll with a pocket full of pebbles and shells and bits of driftwood, then perhaps these are for you!

General information

This 26-page pattern includes directions for four different urchins, each available in two sizes, each with two different decrease options, and each with two options for bead placement.  It is tremendously detailed and holds your hand every step of the way. There are pages and pages of step-by-step photos to show you exactly what to expect as you work. It walks you through everything from cast on to playing with more than one yarn to managing your ends to placing beads to blocking your shell.

The pattern is almost absurdly detailed, but it really does mean you can totally make these, even if you’ve never knit a project like this before!

Skills & scope

The knitting on these is delightfully mellow. They’re worked in the round, they make sense in your hands as you’re working them (all the increases and decreases are nicely stacked up in a way that makes them easy to memorize), and they’re small enough you can have one finished in an hour or two.

The pattern uses charts, so you will need to know how to follow a knitting chart.

Yarn, gauge & sizing

The size of your shell will be determined by your yarn and gauge. Mine are between 2 and 3 inches across (about the size of real urchins).

I recommend using fairly thin yarn (fingering, sport, or DK weight) and knitting tightly enough that you get a firm fabric. You don’t need to match any particular gauge, but you do want a sturdy fabric. As long as you’re getting a nice, dense fabric (similar to what you’d want for socks), you’re getting the right gauge.

Some of my shells use one yarn, some use a second strand of fuzzy, lace-weight silk mohair blend as a contrast yarn. Each shell took less than 50 yards of each yarn. If you want to use beads, they need to be big enough to fit over whatever yarn you’re using (I used size 6 seed beads) and you’ll use somewhere between 50 and 100 beads per shell.

You can absolutely use scrap yarn for this.

Tools & supplies

You’ll need needles that let you work in the round (circulars or DPNs) in whatever size lets you get a fabric you like with your chosen yarn plus the general knitting tools you need for most projects (scissors to cut your yarn, a darning needle to weave in ends, the occasional stitch marker or bit of scrap yarn to hold stitches). If you want to use beads, you’ll want whatever you like to use to get beads onto your knitting. I used a very very very tiny crochet hook, but anything that does the job is fine.