Christmas Star Pattern Freebie!

Hello friends! I have something to share with you.

I created this pattern a few years ago, and it's super cute and super simple.

You can make them as individual stars and add a loop of chains to turn them into ornaments for your tree (they look so cute on a tree!), or even make a whole bunch of them an string them together on a chain to make a garland or starry bunting.

They work up really quickly. I prefer to use a cotton yarn for these, but I'm sure they'd look great in any type of yarn! My favourite cotton ever is the Bendigo Woollen Mills cotton, and I buy 8 ply. I see that they are currently on special; $11 for a 200g ball is an awesome bargain if you ask me! You'd be able to make hundreds of stars with that much.... and all the pretty colours...... Ok so I'm going to try my very best not to put in an order right now!

Anyway, without any further ado, here goes: My Christmas Star Pattern

And because I love you, I've even made a video tutorial of this pattern for you, in case you aren't familiar with any of the stitches :) Check it out here!

Materials:
8ply cotton (or preferred yarn)
4mm hook (or larger hook for a larger star... experiment!)

Stitches (I use US terms):
ch=chain, sc=single crochet, dc=double crochet, hdc=half double crochet, slst=slip stitch

Special Stitches:
Bobble stitch - (yarn over, insert hook into ring, pull up loop)- do this twice. Then yarn over, pull through all five loops on your hook.

Pattern:
Begin with magic ring, chain 1.

ROUND ONE: Into the magic ring, work bobble stitch, ch2. Repeat 4 times (5 bobbles with ch2 between each), then join with slst in top of first bobble.

ROUND TWO: ch3 (acts as first dc), dc into same stitch. Ch2, work 2 more dc into same stitch. Work 2dc, ch2, 2dc into top of each remaining bobble, then join with slst into top of begch3

ROUND THREE: ch1, sc into the space between the two lots of dc that's behind your hook. Work the following around: Into ch2 space, work 1sc, 1hdc, 1dc, ch2, slst into second chain (called a picot, makes the points of the stars), 1dc, 1hdc, 1sc. Sc into the space between the next two sets of dc.
Repeat around, slst into first sc.

OPTIONAL: To make a loop for hanging, ch25, slst into the slst that ended the previous round. Finish off and weave in ends.

Christmas Crafting.

Hi again everyone! I'm not sure if anyone reads here anymore, and my blogging has become sporadic at best. Life gets crazy, huh? However, I love this little corner of the internet. It has so much of little family's history on it, and I come back here a lot to help jog my memory on things and to show the kids special moments from the past. So, even if it's not as frequent as it used to be, I'm going to keep popping back in and posting when I get the time.

Today, I wanted to share my most recent crafting adventure.

About a week ago, my mum shared an attic24 link on my facebook timeline. It was a picture of this gorgeous wreath...

Isn't it lovely? I replied to my mum that I have followed the Attic24 blog for years, and that I'm sure Lucy had made a whole bunch of wreaths for different seasons or occasions. Which of course then led to me falling down an Attic24 rabbit hole (man that girl is talented!!), and eventually landing on her Christmas wreath.

By that time I was totally itching to make one of my own. As beautiful as these wreaths are, they weren't exactly the kind of thing that I wanted to make myself though. So I did the only logical thing and headed on over to pinterest for some more inspiration.

By that evening, I had begun a little collection of christmasy crocheted creations (how's that for alliteration!) with which to embellish my wreath. (The colours came up SO WEIRD in this photo)

On the weekend I went on a wreath hunt, and found a styrofoam wreath at Spotlight for about $8.00. I had found this tutorial while browsing pinterest, and decided to use it instead of doing the stripey wreath cover from the Attic24 post. I just thought it was super cute! I chose an awesome bright pink fluffy yarn, and got to work. It really didn't take me too long. It was a little bit to get my head around at first; you have to kind of loop the yarn around with your left hand instead of picking up loops with your hook. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy peasy. I single crocheted around the whole thing, and then did a shell stitch to make the super cute scalloped border.

The lighting in these photos is completely awful, I do apologise. I was working at night, and you know, no light an all... 

I started playing with placement of my bits and pieces and quickly decided that I was going to keep to flat embellishments (ie, none of those little red balls or curls I had made, and no pompoms). 

I used the leaf pattern from here, the heart pattern from here, the mini wreath pattern from here (with little silver rings that I had stashed from my jewellery-making days), angel pattern from here (minus the tassel), and flower patterns from here and here. I only used cotton yarn, and only used what I already had at home. My husband was very proud, haha. Oh, and I also used a star pattern that I made up a few years ago, but I haven't got a link for it, I'll have to do that at some point! 

I actually ended up just pinning the pieces. I did this for a few reasons; firstly it was easier and quicker, and what's not to love about that! Also, it means that I can change them easily if I want to go for a different colour scheme or something another year. I made some simple little white single-crocheted strips to turn into curly swirls for my finishing touches. Annnnd..... voila!

I chained a loop which I pinned to the back for hanging, and today, I hung it! Yes, we have already decorated our house for christmas. Because, we are awesome like that, and we LOOOOOVE CHRISTMAS! I'll share some more photos of that sometime soon.

So here it is, my beautiful new Christmas wreath; in situ:

Go on, get crocheting! You know you want to!