Confession time! and a ‘Thank You’

Recently I didn’t have anything at a suitable point to take to the ‘Crafty Coffee’ morning so I decided I would take a copy of my Christmas bauble pattern and some #10 crochet cotton and start making some more crochet baubles for that special time of year.

However as I followed the pattern – shock horror! – there was a mistake. On row 3 the pattern said to repeat five times when it should have been eleven and this mistake was repeated on the following rows.

I have now corrected this but if anyone tried the pattern and got totally confused I apologise.

I will include here a few extra suggestions for anyone who wants to make some baubles based on my recent experience.

The original bauble was made to fit over a ball I begged off my daughter.

But since my original attempt at covering the ball with vaseline had made it go soft, I decided to buy some polystyrene balls from Hobbycraft as this way I could stiffen a few at once and have a better ball. The size I thought was closest to the original was 70mm.

Having made a new bauble this time in red, I covered the ball with cling film as before. This time I decided that I would stiffen both halves at one to make an even join. And to ensure that I knew where the  halves fitted I used a bit of old fuse wire to hold them together. (This was a little hard to remove at the end as it had stuck firm so I broke the wire.)

I also sewed a piece of thread round the joining edges to keep them close together, to help them fit closely.

I remove this at the end before sticking the two halves together with polystyrene glue. [I need a new tube my present glue has gone a bit thick.]

I had to stretch the crochet more to fit this size ball which is obviously a little larger than the one I used before, as you can see, but I think it makes for a better bauble.

End of apology!

However on a brighter note Lisa Victoria from yarnchick40  has just made a very pretty crochet hook case from my pattern – http://yarnchic40.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/crochet-hooker-storage/ so at least that one works and I have seen crochet crosses and granny ripple blankets made from my patterns on Ravelry so at least some of my patterns work.

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I also want to thank say a big THANK YOU to Marianne of maRRose CCC who sent me this bracelet as part of her recent giveaway. Her’s is a blog I follow as she makes lots of lovely colourful things.

 I just love the flower beads and the colours are my favourite ones – so pretty and dainty.

Here I am wearing it.

Snowflake bookmark pattern

This pattern is now available for sale on Ravelry – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/four-snowflake-bookmark

This is a very easy bookmark pattern that can suitably be made in either #10 or #20 crochet cotton. Individual snowflakes could also be made in any yarn for decoration.

The pattern is available in either UK or US terms.

A little silver in the tassel can add a little sparkle.

Crochet Baubles

Last Christmas I showed you these crochet baubles I bought in Paperchase.

And told you that I would like to make some myself for the next year.

Well! that time has come but with wanting to finish two blankets and some Christmas gifts to make as well I have not progressed as much as I would have hoped. However it still seems appropriate to share with you what I have managed to do, with a bit of a tutorial in case you are inspired to make some yourselves.

I decided to start by using the balls I had as inspiration for working up a pattern. I also persuaded my daughter to give me one of the plastic balls that were lying around the house that had come out of a small home ball pit.

The first pattern I used (copy included at end) gave me this:-

I used #10 crochet cotton and a 2mm hook as the shop balls seemed to have been made loosely and this gave me something that fitted nicely over my ball. (The ball was about 70mm in diameter – a little smaller than the ones I had bought but I actually like them better that way.)

I bought some School PVA glue. (This was cheaper than the ‘Craft’ glue and was washable so I thought it would mix better with water – I have never used it before; maybe some of you know more about using it). I mixed one teaspoon of glue with 1 teaspoon of water in an egg cup and thoroughly soaked the crochet in the glue water mixture.

I covered the ball in vaseline (petroleum jelly) to stop the crochet sticking to it. (More on this later).

Apologies for the mess in the background. 🙂

I stretched the crochet hemispere over the ball

and put it in the airing cupboard to dry.

Here is a ‘before and after’ picture.

I then made a second hemisphere and did the same.

However I began to realise that the vaseline, or the moisture, had softened the ball and it was getting harder to get the dents out of it so I decided that maybe it would be better to cover it with a piece of cling film: not quite as smooth but good enough.

Looking closely at the balls I had bought I decided that the two halves had been stuck together with polystyrene glue so that is what I did and got this:-

I also worked up a different pattern which was less lacey based on another of the balls but this was less satisfactory (though not entirely unusable) so I won’t bother to share this pattern with you.

This made the following

I don’t know if you can see but they are less naturally rounded than the first and, though it is hard to see in a photo, I also made a mistake and on one of the rows: I used trebles (US dcs) for one and double trebles (US trs) for the other.

However they did dry fairly rounded when stretched over the ball.

This second time I had intended to make both halves first and stretch them over the ball at the same time to make the two edges more easily match up but another shortcoming of this pattern was that they did not quite meet so in fact the ball is not truly spherical and the one half fits inside the other to a certain extent because of my mistake in the pattern. (I forgot to write it out as I went 🙂 )

I think though that hung on a Christmas tree it is still usable. I have yet to add a loop to hang them by and it would probably have been easier to do this before I stuck the two halves together.

Here they are together.

And here is the pattern I used for the first, lacey ball.

Christmas Bauble pattern

My recommendation would be to use a polystyrene ball that can be found in a craft shop and cover with cling film though I have yet to do it this way.

Using the cotton and hook size given below the ball should be about 70mm in diameter.

I used Anchor Aida #10 crochet cotton and a 2mm hook.

UK version

Starting with a magic loop or other preferred method.

Row1: 6ch, then working into the centre of the loop (tr, 3ch) five times and s.s. into 3rd ch at start..

Row 2: S.s. left till you get into loop, 6ch, tr into same loop, 3ch then (tr, 3ch) twice into each of next five loops, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 3: 3ch, [(2ch, dc, 2ch, ) into loop tr into tr] eleven times, then (2ch, dc, 2ch) into last loop, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 4: 7ch, (tr into tr, 4ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 5: 3ch, [(3ch, dc, 3ch, ) into loop tr into tr] eleven times, then (3ch, dc, 3ch) into last loop, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 6: 8ch, (tr into tr, 5ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 7: As Row 5.

Row 8: 9ch, (tr into tr, 6ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 9: As Row 5.

Row 10: 9ch, (tr into tr, 6ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start. Or else instead of the tr, use a dc or s.s. – whatever makes the shape cover half the ball.

US version

Starting with a magic loop or other preferred method.

Row1: 6ch, then working into loop (dc, 3ch) five times and s.s. into 3rd ch at start..

Row 2: S.s. left till you get into loop 6ch, dc into same loop, 3ch then (dc, 3ch) twice into each of next five loops, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 3: 3ch, [(2ch, sc, 2ch, ) into loop dc into dc] eleven times, then (2ch, sc, 2ch) into last loop, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 4: 7ch, (dc into dc, 4ch) five times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 5: 3ch, [(3ch, sc, 3ch, ) into loop dc into dc] eleven times, then (3ch, sc, 3ch) into last loop, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 6: 8ch, (dc into dc, 5ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 7: As Row 5.

Row 8: 9ch, (dc into dc, 6ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 9: As Row 5.

Row 10: 9ch, (dc into dc, 6ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start. Or else instead of the dc, use an sc or s.s. – whatever makes the shape cover half the ball.

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I am hoping in time to try out other patterns although I must say that I particularly like this one. I would also like to make the balls in a variety of colours. I may share these with you if and when I complete them.

Granny Bunting tutorial

As requested by http://themeepingkoala.wordpress.com/ I am sharing my granny bunting pattern.

I decided to do it as a tutorial.

As a general guide: I used Rico Essentials Cotton nominal DK [US 8ply] (but to my mind a little thinner) and a 4mm [US no. 6] hook to make bunting triangles about 4 inches (10cm) each side. But obviously you could use any yarn and an appropriate sized hook.

I started with a magic circle.

Then made 3 chain (ch) as a starting treble [US dc].

I will describe in full making the first treble [US dc]

Yarn round hook

Hook through magic circle loop

Pull a loop of yarn through to give three loops on hook.

Then pick up a loop of yarn

and pull through two loops nearest hook to give.

Pull yarn through last two loops and you have a completed treble (tr) [US dc].

Work another tr [US dc] into the loop and you get the first of your ‘granny’ three treble [US dcs] group.

You then need to make 3 ch for the corner

and another 3 trs [US dcs] into the loop.

You have the first corner.

Then you work another 3 ch for your second corner

followed by another 3 trs ([US dcs] into the loop.

Then work 3 ch

and draw the loose end tight to close the loop.

You now work a slip stitch to close the round  by inserting the hook into the third of the starting three chains

and pulling a loop of thread through the stitch and the loop on the hook.

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If I was changing colour at this point I would join a new colour before the slip stitch thus:

I would tie in the new yarn (I show the knot loose so it is easier to see but I would in fact pull it tight.)

Then pull the new yarn through the stitch and loop on hook.

To give –

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I have my own way of starting a new round for a granny square, circle or triangle which is the following.

I pull the loop out to make it larger

Then I pull it through the corner from back to front.

so it is the right size to start making stitches in the middle of the corner.

I then make the starting 3 ch tr [or US dc] equivalent.

followed by 2 trs [US dcs].

This completes half a corner. Between corners I use 1 ch to separate the groups of trs [US dcs].

Now we work the next corner but making 3 trs [US dcs] into the corner on the previous round.

followed by 3 ch

and a further 3 trs [US dcs] into the same corner gap.

Now we work into the next corner in the same way making – 1ch, 3trs [US dcs], 3 ch, 3trs [US dcs].

And we finish the last corner by working 1 ch followed by 3trs [US dcs] into the corner.

then 3 ch.

And joining with a slip stitch (sl st) as before.

For the next round the corners are worked in the same way but in the 1 ch gap between corners we work 3trs [US dcs] separating the 3tr [US dc] groups by 1ch, but still using 3ch for the corners as before.

Giving

This process can be continued as long as you wish depending on how big you want the bunting.

Each round has three corners with one extra 3 tr [US dc] group for the third row, two for the fourth, three for the fifth and so on………………

Here I show you a chart for the five rows that I used for mine.

As in my previous post

The triangles tend to be a little rounded so to make them more crisply triangular it is a good idea to pin then out and iron them. I used a little spray starch with mine as I was using a cotton yarn.

I found the easiest way to join them into bunting was to take two strands of the cotton yarn and make a chain. After a few inches I slip stitched into the corner of a triangle then proceeded thus:

sl st into corner, 3ch, then repeated (sl st between groups, 3ch) until I reached the last corner when I did another sl st and then a few chain (5 I think) before slip stitching into the corner of the next triangle.

Ans so my bunting was complete.

Easter cards

I made some crochet cards at Christmas with removable stars but it seemed to me after I had got into making bookmarks that cards incorporating removable bookmarks would be even more worthwhile.

Now I am not really an Easter card sending person but where people have sent me cards in the past, I have felt the need to respond. So I decided that Easter cards incorporating cross bookmarks would be something I could make for this year as I only had a few to send.

Now one of the Easter cards I get is from people who are, as far as I know, not at all religious, so for them I made this card. Quite quick and simple because I wasn’t sure what to make and as time was running short (they live in the U.S.) I had to buckle down and produce something. 🙂

But I had already started on my cross bookmarks for my christian friends.

and

Finally I got out a smaller hook and made a cross with a contrasting edging using the second pattern and a picot edge this time.

This was acceptable.

At first I hung the bookmarks on my Easter tree but it the meantime I went to ‘Paperchase’ and bought some folded card and matching envelopes as I had for Christmas.

I would have preferred a slightly less acid green but I bought three lots anyway, brought them home and printed a greeting inside.

Then all that was left was to attach the bookmarks to the front of the card, which I did in a similar way to those I made at Christmas but more simply.

Giving me three cards to send to people.

Realising that up to now I have not made any bookmarks for myself I made a cross bookmark using the second pattern with my pastel rainbow mix #20 cotton.

 

A Dozen Eggs!

Since Maryanne suggested that it would be a good idea to have some Easter related entries for the ‘Made It’ monthly challenge, I decided to try my hand at crochet eggs.

I have realised that it is being impatient and lazy that leads me to write my own patterns.

I start out due to this laziness and impatience looking for other people’s patterns because I think that is the quicker and easier option but then if I discover that the patterns are not all the same, so I don’t know which will be best or else I find them hard to understand, I decide that actually the quickest and easiest thing to do will be to get some yarn and a hook and work up my own.

And so it was with crochet eggs.

I know lots of people would have created a beautiful co-ordinating set but my collection, I am afraid, is more eclectic.

I gathered together

1.

The scraps of yarn left from my hexagon blanket.

2.

The cotton yarn left from my ‘flower cloth’. I especially liked using these as they gave a smooth finish with a slight sheen.

3.

And the ends of balls I am using for the CAL. I found these colours seemed more suitable than the ones for the blanket.

First of all I made this one.

Not too big so I could finish it quickly.

Then another couple with more of an effort to consider what the pattern was.

They were even smaller but I thought rather sweet.

Next I decided to try to incorporate the ‘Linen’ stitch that I used for my phone cover.

The purple one came out a bit miss-shapen, so I added a little flower to detract from the shape.

I tried stripey ones in different sizes. By now I had a definite pattern that could be worked in three sizes (or more).

I liked these as there was no need to keep joining in new yarn. It could just be alternated.

And of course I had to make some rainbow ones.

Only six! colours but then a rainbow is probably only said to have seven colours because people were obsessed with sevens at the time and thought of it as the ‘perfect’ number; although when mathematicians talk of ‘perfect’ numbers they mean something different.

So now I had

Five small ones,

Four medium ones

and

Three egg sized ones.

The first eggs I made and those using the linen stitch came out slightly different sizes but

The pattern is basically:

6dc (US sc) into a magic loop. [6dcs ]

Next row: 2dcs into each dc. [12dcs]

Continue increasing six times each row until you get to 18dcs (small), 24dcs (medium) or 30 (large=UK medium/large egg size with DK yarn and 3.5mm hook).

Then work 5 rows small, 6 rows medium or 7 rows large before decreasing. I hope you can see the pattern here if you want to make even bigger ones!

Decrease three times every row (eg. {7dc, 2dctog, 1dc} x3, for first decrease for large.) until only 6dc are left.

Start stuffing about halfway through the decreases. I found I normally pushed a last bit of stuffing through the final hole with the end of my crochet hook.

Draw remaining thread through stitches and fasten off.

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Whether you work in rounds or a spiral I found to be a mootish point as I couldn’t make the joins for the rows invisible, so I moved onto doing them in a spiral as they both gave a sense of discontinuity when working in more than one colour but the spiral was neater.

I did work in rounds for the linen stitch ones as there I could hide the join more successfully.

And here is my Easter Tree.

I have added a few flowers and as Easter is the major Christian festival, the crosses but more of those next week.

Maybe in time (like next year) I may make more things to add.

Crochet Bookmarks

Before I continue with my subject I just wanted to share something that made me happy and surprised.

A lady called JudyR who can be found on Ravelry told me about another lady ‘fanalaine’ who had made a blanket using my ‘granny ripple’ crochet pattern. She’s finished a blanket and I’m not even half way through mine! It is a lovely looking blanket too. If you have a Ravelry account you can find some excellent photographs HERE.

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Now back to crochet bookmarks

I had originally thought that this would make a good item for the January ‘Made It’ challenge since I couldn’t enter it for the December one as it is about things that I made as Christmas presents. However, since it doesn’t look as if there will be a January challenge I thought that I would write a post about them anyway.

I took the pictures before I packed them up as presents and I just have the three.

I found the pattern for the Fan Bookmark HERE and as I thought it was so lovely decided that I would make one.

The pattern says #20 crochet cotton or DMC perle 8 which appeared from my researches to be more like #10 crochet cotton.

In the end I bought #20 crochet cotton in white, a rainbow mixture and red and some #10 crochet cotton in a white/cream mix and made the bookmark in all four of the colours.

I later found that this style of pattern is often called “Queen Anne’s Lace” so that is what I called them when I packaged them. Although further study has shown me that the pattern most people call “Queen Anne’s Lace” is subtly different.

I also found a pattern for a Pineapple Bookmark but when I tried to use the pattern it didn’t seem to come out like the picture (though it was too small to be sure) nor like the pineapples in my mother’s ‘Pineapple Crochet Designs’ book that I had inherited, in that the outer ‘shell over shell’ seemed to be missing.

My mother’s crochet book

So I decided to work out my own pattern which in the end I liked better, as I reversed the direction of the pineapples putting the tassel into the starting hole of the pineapple which seemed a more natural choice.

Here are two of them (again I actually made them in all four cottons).

I will include the pattern in the top menu as normal. (Or click HERE)

Maybe Patricia of http://daniellajoe.wordpress.com/ can tell me if she thinks I have done something dreadful in making the ‘shell over shell’ consist of only [tr, ch, tr] but this seemed more in keeping with the size of the pineapples.

When I had finished all the bookmarks. I decided to package them to keep them hopefully clean and flat. I used cream card and cling film. The film was not a smooth as I would have liked but it was the best I could do.

I think that the people who received them appreciated them and my eldest daughter wrote me that – “The bookmarks are all wonderful, you make really cool stuff.” I hadn’t seen them as ‘cool’ but who knows.

What do you think? Have crochet cotton items become ‘cool’?

Rainbow Scarf pattern

This is something I have been thinking that I would fit in when I didn’t have much else to write a post about.

Of course anyone who looked very closely at my original post about the rainbow scarf could have worked out the pattern from the photographs of the charts I used when I made it but I have had a few people compliment me on the scarf and even had someone ask where they could buy one.

I also seem to have a lot of hits on my chunky scarf pattern page, so I thought that a written pattern for the scarf might be of interest to some people and it is still scarf weather, at least over here in the UK. 🙂

It’s really a very straightforward pattern.

Using DK yarn and no.8 (4mm) 100cm long circular needles.

Starting with red cast on 360 stitches. This should give a scarf about 6ft (180cm) long.

[Obviously, although using circular needles for the necessary length to hold 360 stitches the knitting itself will be done back and forth and not in a circle.]

The first and last two rows are in moss stitch as are the first and last two stitches of each row.

Row 1: Repeat (k1, p1) to end.
Row 2: Repeat (p1, k1) to end.
Row 3: k1, p1, knit to last two stitches, k1, p1.
Row 4: p1, k1, purl to last two stitches, p1, k1.
Row 5: k1, p1, knit to last two stitches, k1, p1.
Row 6: p1, k1, knit to last two stitches, p1, k1.
Row 7: k1, p1, purl to last two stitches, k1, p1.
Row 8: p1, k1, knit to last two stitches, p1, k1.

Changing to orange yarn

Row 9: Repeat (k1, p1) to end.
Row 10: p1, k1, purl to last two stitches, p1, k1.
Row 11: k1, p1, knit to last two stitches, k1, p1.
Row 12: p1, k1, purl to last two stitches, p1, k1.
Row 13: k1, p1, purl to last two stitches, k1, p1.
Row 14: p1, k1, knit to last two stitches, p1, k1.
Row 15: k1, p1, purl to last two stitches, k1, p1.

Changing to yellow yarn

Row 16: Repeat (p1, k1) to end.
Row 17: k1, p1, knit to last two stitches, k1, p1.
Row 18: p1, k1, purl to last two stitches, p1, k1.
Row 19: k1, p1, knit to last two stitches, k1, p1.
Row 20: p1, k1, knit to last two stitches, p1, k1.
Row 21: k1, p1, purl to last two stitches, k1, p1.
Row 22: p1, k1, knit to last two stitches, p1, k1.

Changing to pale green yarn

Rows 23 – 29: Repeat rows 9 to15.

Changing to pale blue yarn

Rows 30 – 36: Repeat rows 16 to 22.

Changing to royal blue yarn

Rows 37 – 43: Repeat rows 9 to 15.

Changing to violet yarn

Rows 44 – 50: Repeat rows 16 to 22.
Row 51: Repeat (k1, p1) to end.
Row 52: Repeat (p1, k1) to end.

Cast off and sew in the ends.

I made three of these scarves altogether, including one slightly shorter one for my grandaughter.

Synchronised scarfing

Genesis of a Granny ripple

In July I showed you the yarn I had bought for my next blanket.

Well it has taken me longer than I expected to get started but here is the story if how I decided on the pattern I would use.

While I was still making my hexagon blanket my mind was already looking forward to the next blanket I would make.

I decided that the choice was between a granny stripe and a ripple blanket but wasn’t sure which, so I made a couple of samplers as cafetiere cosies. I decided that I preferred the feel of the granny stripe but liked the look of the ripple though I might have preferred bigger ripples. So the idea of seeing if I could make a ‘granny ripple’ was born.

I like a challenge so I decided I wouldn’t look for patterns but try to work up my own.

My first attempt at a sampler turned out like this:-

I felt it was more of a granny zig-zag than granny ripple and that the zig-zags were too frenetic so I tried again:–

I thought this was better but it was still a zig-zag rather than a ripple.

I knew that it was the double increases and decreases that had created the pleasant ripples in the pattern I used for the cafetiere and so far I had been unable to see how to incorporate more than one in a granny blanket. But then I had a breakthrough and realised that the problem was that the granny rows alternated between an odd and even number of treble groups whereas for the ripple blanket all the rows were the same. So I decided to only work the increases and decreases every other row.

Success!

I had decided to interleave the colours as in some of the ripple blankets I had seen.

Later I wasn’t sure if the way I had worked the increases and decreases was less symmetrical than that on the ripple blanket and so I tried a few variations:-

The middle is the first one – the one I shall use

But decided it was a case of ‘first time lucky’ and that I liked the first one best.

Then I tried another version of the above ripple but interleaving the colours in a 1 2 4 2 1 pattern instead of a 2 4 2 pattern but I have decided that I find the single rows a bit bitty.

Finally I decided to reverse the rows as worked originally so as to start with the easy row with no increases or decreases as seen below.

I have decided the colours and showed you them in THIS POST

namely

As you can see it is going to incorporate a spectrum array of colours and will use Stylecraft  DK yarn and it will be a little larger than the last blanket so as to be more of a winter bedcover.

I will hopefully have finished enough of the blanket by next week to show you how it is getting along.

An edging would be appropriate for this pattern

I have not yet decided exactly what I am going to do for an edging but it seems to me that you could either use trebles singly or in groups or double crochets for a firmer edge.

I am planning quite a deep edging.

Crochet Christmas cards

These are really easy to make.

First you make the stars.

I always think six-pointed stars for Christmas cards as a reference to the six-pointed ‘Star of David’ as Jesus was a Jew and was born in the ‘City of David’.

(Pattern at the end in UK and US versions.)

I used Twilley’s Goldfingering in silver and gold and a 2mm hook.

I also bought folded A5 sheets of card and matching envelopes from ‘Paperchase’ in dark blue.

I cut myself a piece of white card A6 size and marked out a hexagon where I wanted the star to go and then placed it on top of the front of the unfolded card. Underneath I placed an odd piece of polystyrene that I had so I could stick the end of my compass through the points of the hexagon.

Originally I was going to cut a hole and fit the star in it, which is why I have the extra lines. All you need is a hexagon.

(Mine was marked out using a vertical central line to locate the centre of the circle and top and bottom points then the normal straight edge and compass way of drawing a hexagon using a radius of 1.5 inches, which seemed about right).

You need to pull the points on the star well to work out the correct diameter. The holes should be where the points are when stretched.

You then push a sharp pin, needle or compass point through the corners of the hexagon and remove the white card.

Then take a piece of sewing cotton; I found about 18 inches (45cm)  was a good length; and make a good knot on the end and thread through one of the holes.

You then make a small stitch into the back of one of the 3 chain points and thread the needle back through the same hole being careful not to go into the thread coming out of the hole.

Repeat this procedure for each hole in turn going round the hexagon. You then need to gently pull the cotton on the back and the points on the front till the points of the star hide the holes and the cotton at the back is taut.

Then turn over

and finish off the thread by doing several stitches as illustrated: first into the starting length by the knot to make the loop tight and then to the final length to secure the end.

If I had beautiful handwriting I might have done the words below the star with my gold and silver pens but as my handwriting is very uneven I bought peel off words at a craft shop.

I would have preferred two sheets the same as the silver one but there was not a lot of choice. The silver letters came off so easily but the gold ones were very tricky.

Finally I stuck a label on the back of the front of the card with instructions on removing the star after Christmas is over.

The card and the envelope together cost me 75p. The Goldfingering was £3.50 a ball and I think one ball will make about a dozen stars so say 30p a star. The lettering sheets were 89p each. So I think the cards should cost me a bit less than £1.20 each to make. I haven’t made them all yet but expect to do about two dozen.

Christmas Star patterns

UK version

Using Twilleys goldfingering in silver or gold and a 2.00mm hook.

Start: 6 ch loop.

Row 1: Working into the loop: 7ch (= 1dtr + 3ch), dc, 3ch, then repeat {dtr, 3ch, dc, 3ch} 5 times. Slst into 7ch loop at start.

Row 2: Repeat {6ch, slst into top of dtr) six times. Last slst is into slst of previous row.

Row 3: Repeat {4ch, tr into 6ch loop of previous row, 4ch, slst into slst of previous row.} six times.

Row 4: Repeat {6ch, dtr into top of tr on row below, 6ch, slst into slst of row below} six times.

Row 5: Repeat {dc under loops of rows 3 & 4, 5dc under loop of row 4 only, 3ch, 5dc under loop of row 4 only, dc under loops of row 3 & 4.} six times. Slst to fix final dc.

Pinch the 3ch at the tips of the points and pull hard. Sew in the ends

US version

Using Twilleys goldfingering in silver or gold and a 1/B hook.

Start: 6 ch loop.

Row 1: Working into the loop: 7ch (= 1trc + 3ch), sc, 3ch, then repeat {trc, 3ch, sc, 3ch} 5 times. Slst into 7ch loop at start.

Row 2: Repeat {6ch, slst into top of trc) six times. Last slst is into slst of previous row.

Row 3: Repeat {4ch, dc into 6ch loop of previous row, 4ch, slst into slst of previous row.} six times.

Row 4: Repeat {6ch, trc into top of dc on row below, 6ch, slst into slst of row below} six times.

Row 5: Repeat {sc under loops of rows 3 & 4, 5sc under loop of row 4 only, 3ch, 5sc under loop of row 4 only, sc under loops of row 3 & 4.} six times. Slst to fix final sc.

Pinch the 3ch at the tips of the points and pull hard. Sew in the ends.

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As always please let me know if you find any mistakes.