The QRdigan

Welcome to Drawn to Research. You might have found this site from the QRdigan that had it’s debut at the International Clinical Trials Methodology Conference 2024.

The QRdigan came about from a collision between two things bumping around in my brain.

I needed something to follow up my viral interactive conference poster from ICTMC 2022.
I’d noticed that a black and white granny square reminded me of a QR code.

So in early 2023 I set about trying to crochet a QR code. I tried tapestry crochet at first, and made my own chart, but that prototype didn’t work. The tricky thing about crocheting a QR code is that you don’t know if it will work or not until it’s finished…..and it takes ages!

Then after a bit of googling, and a crochet break, I came across a website called Stitch Fiddle that generates a corner to corner crochet pattern for you, including patterns for QR codes. This meant I needed to learn how to crochet corner to corner!

My next attempt in August 24 used this corner to corner pattern, double knitting yarn and a size 3 hook. It ended up being huge (too big for a cardigan) and also didn’t work (I’d generated the pattern from an image instead of a weblink…don’t do that even if the chart scans ok). At this stage my 8 year old daughter insisted I just print it on a t-shirt instead but I would not be defeated without one last attempt.

Then, with just over a week before ICTMC, sitting in the sun with some liquid encouragement I started my last attempt. This time I used 2ply yarn, a vintage size 1.75 Comet crochet hook (because I am a core outcome set developer after all), and a chart generated in Stitch Fiddle directly from a link.

At 9.34 on the 23rd September 23 I completed my last stich and scanned the QR code…It worked, hurrah! But then I needed to make it into a cardigan. For that I adapted this pattern, it needed quite a few adjustments to get the number of stitches/sizing but it worked really well as a starting point to shape the design.

So many many hours of after work crocheting later, and lots of weaving in of the ends on the train, the QRdigan was finished. I’ve worked out that for standard treble stitches, without changing colour, my rate of crochet is about 19 stitches per minute. To put that in perspective 1 sleeve has about 2000 stitches!

I’ve seen a crochet QR code before but never in cardigan format so maybe this is a world first?