How to Crochet a Bacteriophage Virus

Bacteriophages are viruses which attach bacteria. They look so cool I just had to make one for myself. In the steps below, I will give general guidelines for crocheting one of your own. Detailed steps are not given, but it really isn't that hard if you have made crochet critters before.

Step 1 Step 1: The head

Bacteriophage heads contain the viral DNA. They are generally depicted as an icosahedron - a solid geometric figure made up of 20 triangles. There are 5 triangles whose apexes meet at the top, 10 which circle the middle (flip every other one upside down so its base is at the top), and 5 whose apexes meet at the bottom. I used equilateral triangles for the top and bottom, and isosceles triangles twice the height of the equilateral triangles for the middle. My equilateral triangles started with 14 sc for the base and decreased to 1 sc at the apex over 13 rows. My isosceles triangles also started with a base of 14 sc, but decreased over 26 rows. It is helpful to have paper patterns to follow.  For the 5 triangles at the bottom of the icosahedron, stop with 2 sc remaining so there is an opening for the neck. When all pieces are crocheted, sew or crochet them together and stuff.

Comments

[lmmamigurumi]

wow. well done . can you give some advice to mine.
www.lmm-amigurumi.com. tks....

[merijnvw]

Wow cool! My company's name is It's A Virus so that would be a cool mascotte!

[musical_gamer_girl]

This would look so cool sitting on my desk! ( LOL)
I might learn more crochet just to make your stuff!

[skbmo]

I am hoping to sell complete patterns on etsy in the future. Although it looks complicated, it is made entirely from single crochet: some in rows and some in the round. There are increases, which are just two stitches in one stitch from the previous round and decreases, where you pull up a loop in two stitches and pull yarn through both loops. I made a second one modifying the pattern slightly, and using just two colors. In the second one, I crocheted the triangles of the head together, which gave it a neater, more even look. I also used strips of upholstry foam combined with wire in the long tail fibers instead of cotton cording, which made them less floppy. The only other major modification was to crochet a separate piece for the bottom of the hexagonal base plate. This made inserting the PVC pipe and stuffing the sheath easier. The original is at my husband's work, but since they are a fire protection firm, his coworkers don't get it. The second is going to my son, who is a math major in college.

[canida]

Oh, this is awesome - I love it!
You've inspired me to try crocheting other biologicals.  Good stuff. ;)

[skbmo]

Check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/towemy/2679836611/

She has lots of fresh water algae too. There is also someone on etsy who has wonderful knitted representations of dissections of frogs and fetal pigs. I am constantly amazed at the creative talent out there with a scientific bent.

[Metrica]

I remember in Discover Magazine there was a professor who crocheted universes for her classes. They were multi-dimensional, I think. In fact, the writer/journalist kept on calling it knitting even though she continually used the verb crochet...

[skbmo]

I remember that article too.

[firefliie]

this reminds me of a jimmy neutron episode i used to watch when i was litle with little viruses that looked like that. they like music, i think.:)

[Ward_Nox]

my first thought OMG it's the virus from that one episode of jimmi neutron

[Iridium7]

 I don't know  why I Think that virus is fake. It looks like it shouldn't exist.

[Win Guy]

Awesome! Briliant! What more can I say?... Love it!

[buteomont]

This is awesome!

[kelseymh]

Very, very cool!  Featured and rated...Now you just need to hide a small spring-loaded dagger in the tail and you can make it even more realistic!

An icosahedron has 20 equliateral triangular sides.  Since you did the counting right, that "30" in step 1 is an obvious typo.

In step 7, I think they're referred to as "filaments."  There are both filamentous and non-filamentous phages.

[skbmo]

Thank you very much. I'll try to edit my mistakes. I mixed up my edges with faces! Regular icosahedrons have all equilateral triangles. For non-regular ones, the triangles need not be equilateral.

[kelseymh]

Yes, indeed.  If I didn't say it before, this is a really awesome construction.

[ChrysN]

Cool, well done!