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Crochet Stars in Three Sizes

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In this post you will find free crochet patterns in UK and US terms for you to make crochet stars in three sizes. I originally started working on these because we had heating on for the first time this year. My thoughts went straight to the making time remaining to me before Christmas 🙂

However, these stars don’t have to be for Christmas. There are many uses through the year as card toppers, in garlands or as decoration when wrapping presents. They also work as reusable table confetti like the crochet hearts I made last year. You can find the patterns for the crochet hearts in this post – Crochet Hearts in three sizes.

Firstly let me tell you that the stars in the photos here are worked in Sirdar Cotton DK on a 4mm hook. I love this yarn for the stitch definition and the soft texture. Using this yarn the small star is roughly 4cm across, medium star measures 5cm and the largest one is 6cm across. The pattern will work in any yarn quality but the stars will come up different sizes of course.

Crochet Star – three sizes. Patterns in UK crochet terms – (Scroll down for patterns in US instructions)

Small Star – UK instructions

First round – make a magic loop (see below)

making a magic loop
magic loop

Work 2 chain into the magic loop and 9DC.

chain two into the magic loop
chain two
working the first round into the magic loop
work the first round into the magic loop

Pull the magic loop closed and join the first round with a slip stitch to the second of the starting chains.

close the magic loop and slip stitch to finish the round
pull the yarn tail to close the loop and finish with a slip stitch

Second round – Working into the same stitch, CH2, 1TR, CH2 picot*, 1DTR, 1TR. Work a slip stitch into the next stitch. There are eight stitches on round 1 remaining. Repeat the following pattern between the square brackets to the end of the row. [Working all the stitches in the following bracket into the next stitch (1HTR, 1TR, CH2 picot, 1DTR, 1TR), work a slip stitch into the next stitch] x 4. Finish off the yarn and you have your small star.

* work a picot as follows. slip stitch into the chain two from the hook as shown below.

work a slip stitch into the second chain from the hook to form the picot

Medium Star – UK instructions

First round – make a magic loop (see photos above)

Work 3 chain into the magic loop and 9TR. Pull the magic loop closed and join the first round with a slip stitch to the third of the starting chains.

Second round – Working into the same stitch, CH2, 1TR, CH2 picot*, 1DTR, 1TR. Work a slip stitch into the next stitch. There are eight stitches on round 1 remaining. Repeat the following pattern between the square brackets to the end of the row. [Working all the stitches in the following bracket into the next stitch (1HTR, 1TR, CH2 picot, 1DTR, 1TR), work a slip stitch into the next stitch] x 4. Finish off the yarn and you have your small star.

* work a picot as follows. slip stitch into the chain two from the hook as shown above.

Large Star – UK instructions

First round – make a magic loop (see photos above)

Work 3 chain into the magic loop and 9TR. Pull the magic loop closed and join the first round with a slip stitch to the third of the starting chains.

Second round – Chain 2, DC into the same space. Work 2DC into each of the remaining nine stitches then join with a slip stitch to the second of the starting chains.

Third round – Chain 2, 1TR into the same space. Into the next stitch work (1DTR, Chain 3, picot*, Chain 1, 1DTR). Into the next stitch work (1TR, 1HTR). Slip stitch into the next stitch to finish the first point of the star. Work four more points of the star as follows: [ into the first stitch (1HTR, 1TR), into the second stitch (1DTR, Chain 3, picot*, Chain 1, 1DTR), into the third stitch (1TR, 1HTR), work a slip stitch into the fourth stitch] repeat the instructions between the square brackets [ ] three more times and you are done!

* work a picot as follows. slip stitch into the chain two from the hook as shown above.

Patterns in US crochet terms – (Scroll up for patterns in UK instructions)

Small Star – US instructions

small crochet star

First round – make a magic loop (see photos above)

Work 2 chain into the magic loop and 9SC. Pull the magic loop closed and join the first round with a slip stitch to the second of the starting chains.

Second round – Working into the same stitch, CH2, 1DC, CH2 picot*, 1TR, 1DC. Work a slip stitch into the next stitch. There are eight stitches on round 1 remaining. Repeat the following pattern between the square brackets to the end of the row. [Working all the stitches in the following bracket into the next stitch (1HDC, 1DC, CH2 picot, 1TR, 1DC), work a slip stitch into the next stitch] x 4. Finish off the yarn and you have your small star.

* work a picot as follows. slip stitch into the chain two from the hook as shown above.

Medium Star – US instructions

First round – make a magic loop (see photos above)

Work 3 chain into the magic loop and 9DC. Pull the magic loop closed and join the first round with a slip stitch to the third of the starting chains.

Second round – Working into the same stitch, CH2, 1DC, CH2 picot*, 1TR, 1DC. Work a slip stitch into the next stitch. There are eight stitches on round 1 remaining. Repeat the following pattern between the square brackets to the end of the row. [Working all the stitches in the following bracket into the next stitch (1HDC, 1DC, CH2 picot, 1TR, 1DC), work a slip stitch into the next stitch] x 4. Finish off the yarn and you have your small star.

* work a picot as follows. slip stitch into the chain two from the hook as shown above.

Large Star – US instructions

First round – make a magic loop (see above)

Work 3 chain into the magic loop and 9DC. Pull the magic loop closed and join the first round with a slip stitch to the third of the starting chains.

Second round – Chain 2, SC into the same space. Work 2SC into each of the remaining nine stitches then join with a slip stitch to the second of the starting chains.

Third round – Chain 2, 1DC into the same space. Into the next stitch work (1TR, Chain 3, picot*, Chain 1, 1TR). Into the next stitch work (1DC, 1TR). Slip stitch into the next stitch to finish the first point of the star. Work four more points of the star as follows: [ into the first stitch (1HDC, 1DC), into the second stitch (1TR, Chain 3, picot*, Chain 1, 1TR), into the third stitch (1DC, 1HDC), work a slip stitch into the fourth stitch] repeat the instructions between the square brackets [ ] three more times and you are done!

* work a picot as follows. slip stitch into the chain two from the hook as shown above.

I hope you love these little crochet stars as much as I do. Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Crochet Rope Edging

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This three coloured rope crochet edging makes a beautiful finish to any project. I was looking for an neat edge that used all three of the colours from my project. This edging forms a pretty rope effect and although it feels a bit fiddly to start with you will soon find you get into a rhythm.

crochet rope edging
three colour crochet rope edging

The materials I am using in this example are Sirdar Cotton DK and a 4mm hook. These photographs use the following colours, Red (shade 510), Honeysuckle (shade 508) and Citrus (shade 531). The base colour is Vanilla (shade 502).

Three coloured rope crochet edging pattern

Choose your start point and join in the first colour. Make a chain of five stitches and take the hook out of the stitch to leave a loop. Tip – as you work it is easy to pull out stitches so I recommend pulling a bit of thread through to leave a larger loop.

Join in the second colour to the stich alongside your first chain and again make a chain of five stitches then remove the hook.

Finally join in the third colour into the next stitch of your project, making your final chain of five stitches. When you have joined your third colour the work should look like this picture below.

crochet rope edging
three colours joined

Start making the three coloured crochet rope

Next we are going to start to make the rope. Put your hook back into the loop at the end of the first chain you made. In my work above this is the yellow chain. This is where it gets a bit fiddly! I found if I worked slowly at first and kept the colours from tangling, I got into an easy rhythm after a few colour changes 🙂

With your hook in the loop at the end of the first chain, bring this chain down in front of all the others and put your hook into the stitch next to the third colour. This is the next available stitch on the edge of your project as shown below.

crochet rope edging
hook placement for first twist of the rope

Make a slip stitch by putting your hook into this stitch, wrapping the yarn around and pull back through the work as shown below. Next pull this through the loop on the hook to form a slip stitch.

slip stitch to make the first twist
slip stitch to secure the first twist

Work another five chains with this colour and remove the hook from the work. Your edging should look like this picture below.

crochet rope edging 4
crochet rope edging after the first twist

You have made the first twist and the rest of the crochet rope follows the same method. Put your hook into the end of the chain nearest to the right of the work. Bring the chain to the front of the work and put your hook into the next available stitch to the left of the work. For my example here this means putting the hook into the end of the orange chain. Bring this chain forward and secure the twist with a slip stitch into the stitch next to the yellow chain, as shown in the photos below.

crochet rope edging 5
bring the next chain to the front of the work
crochet rope edging 6
work into the next available stitch
crochet rope edging 7
slip stitch leaving one loop on the hook
crochet rope edging 9
work another five stitch chain and move the hook to the next colour

Finishing your work – Tips

That really is all there is to it. Continue picking up each colour, bringing it to the front of the work and secure with a slip stitch before making a new five stitch chain. You will see your rope start to grow. More pictures below along with a few final tips.

crochet rope edging 10
third twist secured
crochet rope edging 11
keep going in the same way to form the rope

Using the rope edging on the ends of rows side

If you are working along an edge that has the ends of rows rather than a neat set of stitches this can be difficult to space. Measure the gap between two slip stitches of the same colour on your first edge and use that as a guide to place your slip stitches on this edge.

Changing the pattern to suit different weights of yarn or tension

If you find that the tension of the rope doesn’t sit well or look right then adjust the number of stitches you have in your chain. I found five chain stitches was perfect for this Cotton DK. You might need more/fewer if you are working with a different weight of yarn. Just find the right tension by trial and error working a small section then see how the edging sits.

Dealing with corners

If you are working on a square or rectangular project you will have to deal with a 90 degree corner or rather four corners! You should find that if you work three colours into one stitch either side of the corner the rope will continue round the corner. This means that you work all three colours into the last stich of the row before the corner. Turn and again work all three colours into the first stitch on the next side. Please let me know if you would like to see photos of this and I will add them or put up a separate post.

Adding in more colours

I only used three colours in my design here but you could work a rope with more colours or fewer. Simply adjust the length of chain you use to give the desired effect.

I think that is it for now. I put up a pattern for flower petal edging if you would like to try something different. You can see that pattern here – flower petal edging. Please let me know if you like this edging pattern and if there is anything else I can help with. Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Rainbows and Hearts crochet blanket

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Here is a Rainbows and Hearts version of my hearts and stripes blanket. I didn’t design the original blanket this way deliberately but when I realised the striped squares have seven bars of colour I HAD to make a rainbow version 🙂

One of the issues with using more colours is having more ends to finish off. I have to confess I actually shelved the project at one point because tying off all these ends in REALLY thick yarn was pretty grim. However, I have found the most AMAZING gadget to help.

This is probably old news to lots of you but I hadn’t found these before. A ‘Wool needle’ made by Knit Pro. This needle has a blunt end like a tapestry needle. It also has a big loop (rather than an eye) to make threading easy. I love it!! When I am more organised I will put a link to Amazon in here. Until then, all you have to do is search on ‘knit pro wool needle’ to find them. Like all great inventions I am wondering why it took this long to be available. It seems such an obvious design and perfect for the job when you use it.

I will make a PDF of this pattern for sale on my Etsy store when I get chance. I didn’t want to hold up posting because it does take me a while to scrape the time together sometimes. The pattern for the blocks and advice on joining etc is available for free here:

This is the link that takes you to the heart block pattern

Here is the link to the striped block pattern

Finally this link takes you to the instructions for making up and border pattern. For the rainbow version I kept the border very simple. For UK instructions work one round of DC in White. One round of HTR in black. For US instructions make that one round of SC in white. One round of HDC in black.

Sorry if that is a bit clunky – I will produce the PDF as soon as I can. When I produce the PDF I will do a colour chart. If you want to make a start here is a full picture of the blanket laid out flat. Hopefully you can take your colour instructions from this!

I am already onto the next project. I have decided to make a cushion with the left-over yarn. Pattern and pics to follow.

Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Crochet Blog – update #9

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Welcome to my Crochet blog – update #9. It has been such a long time since I posted an update. I have been working on a number of projects but life and the day job took over. It is difficult to find time to get the patterns together and tested. I am trying to ring fence time to work on my crochet projects, for the sake of my mental health if nothing else!

I have been trying to organise this blog better, updating menus and links. Building my Pinterest profile has been a focus and reviewing all the beautiful work that my fellow crochet designers are producing. I have set up a Tailwind tribe to collect and promote inspiring crochet block and crochet blanket patterns.

Join my new Tailwind tribe here!

Project updates

Hearts and Spots blanket

Now onto the projects I have been busy with. Firstly I am close to finishing a couple of long standing projects. My Hearts and Spots blanket which started life as a Christmas present from my husband. The present was one ball of every colour of Drops Paris cotton yarn. The only thing I have left to do is to finish stitching in the ends. There are a lot of ends!! The design is made up of squares that I designed and have already shared as free patterns. I have added the links to these patterns below the picture.

Hears and spots blanket

Open heart square

Sample square

Cosy Knitted blanket

I branched out into knitting for a short time and will be putting the pattern for this lovely cosy blanket up on my blog as soon as I can get it written. Not to make excuses for the delay but I am actually waiting for my husband to draft the chart 🙂

Cosy knitted blanket

Hearts and Stripes blanket

My latest project is a 4th of July inspired Hearts and Stripes blanket. I designed a solid block based on my heart motif and put it with a simple striped square to produce this blanket. The free patterns for the two squares you need to make this project are already posted. I will post the full pattern for the blanket next – just finishing the pattern test! Here is a picture of the finished project. I hope you like it. Below the picture are the links to the patterns for the two squares.

Hearts and stripes blanket

Full Heart crochet block

Striped square

Finally I have been working on yarn recycling. We (Mum and I) put together quite a stash of salvaged yarn and it has been nagging at me from bags in my stash room….. YES… I am so lucky – I have a whole room for my stash. Admittedly the room is only about four foot square so I suppose it is more of a cupboard than a room … but it is stash dedicated space 🙂 Anyway these bags of recycled yarn have been on my mind so you can expect to see an update on that project in the coming days. I think that is it for now – Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Crochet blog – update #8

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Hello and SORRY – it has been a few weeks since my last post.    I was calling these ‘weekly’ updates but that just hasn’t been happening.    My day job has been REALLY busy for a few weeks but should be calming down now, so hopefully I will get to spend my weekends here again.

I have still been busy with my crochet projects on the train each day.    I have also been able to work on with my Hearts and Spots blanket in the evenings.  Although I don’t want to get my laptop out after a day in the office – I don’t mind a bit of crochet to wind down before bed.

Here are the latest views of the blanket.   I still have to tie in all the ends but it is all stitched together.  The border would be finished if I hadn’t run out of yarn!   The yarn order is in for just two more balls of Drops Paris to complete the project.   The patterns for the squares are on my blog, heart square pattern here and basic square pattern here.   I am not fully happy with the way they fit together so I will be tweaking them over the coming weeks.   I plan to put a smaller version of the blanket together as a kit so watch this space on that.

This project is waaay too big for the train now so I have been working on other things in the mornings and evenings.   I started work designing more blocks and produced a pentagon….  not terribly useful as they don’t tesselate or fit together easily.   I might turn out a pattern for a ball (think football/soccer) at some point using these and a hexagon or two 🙂  I will put the hexagon pattern up on here in case anyone finds it helpful for a five sided project!   I suppose you could just keep going round and make a pentagon shaped blanket.

My other project on the train has been a little bag.   I am quite pleased with this so far.   It looks a bit basic as it still needs handles, decoration.  I think I might include a lining.   Again I am thinking about putting this pattern together as a kit on Etsy but I will share the pattern for free on the blog as soon as I can get it written up.

I have been using a lighter weight yarn for these two projects, Drops Muskat.   Another winner from Drops as far as I am concerned.  This yarn again is incredible value and consistent quality.  I have yet to find a knot!  The yarn is 100% mercerized cotton with a lovely sheen and tight twist which means that it doesn’t split much if at all when being worked.   Easier if you want to be looking up from the work a bit!  I have been using a 4mm hook for this yarn which seems to work well.  The finished work has great stitch definition so would really show off complicated stitches.

Finally, a team project has started in my house.    It started with me worrying about the cost of yarn.   I began wondering whether it would be possible to get hold of some yarn very cheaply by buying old knitwear and dismantling garments to recover the yarn.   This is where my Mum came in and if I am honest has completely taken over!   A trawl of local charity/thrift shops turned up a number of candidate garments.    We got to work (carefully) with scissors, unpicking and balling and the results have been amazing.    I will put up a separate post on the process and results as I could fill pages with what we found and learned.   For this post, in summary, we have recovered a huge quantity of yarn so far for a tiny outlay.   My Mum is now unstoppable in her search for woollies to dismantle and I have started my first project using this recovered yarn!    I am trying to top up what we find with yarn from my stash but as it stands far more is going into my stash than is coming out!!

Here are some of the pics of the project using the recycled yarn.   The inspiration for the project was the first yarn we recovered – a soft brown boucle yarn flecked with yellow and orange.    I came up with a pattern for a block using a cluster stitch (another new one for me).    I will share the patterns in a separate post.

My husband loves drawing and designing and was once an engineer before moving on to other things so he likes a bit of geometry and maths.    I enlisted his help for this project as I was short on time.   He came up with this layout below which I really like – I think I will be asking him for designs more often!   Here is his sketch.

I have had a very exciting time with the blog this month.   One of my posts on pricing of handmade work seemed to catch attention out there and drove far more page views than I have had previously.   My income from ads ‘soared’ to £1.83 in one month 🙂 clearly still a long way to go to being financially secure!

That’s all from me for this post – I have promised a number of follow on posts and patterns so I had better get working!   Please get in touch either by leaving a comment or joining my mailing list.   I love hearing from you all.

Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

 

Crochet blog – update #5

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Hello and welcome to my fifth weekly update!

This week has been all about getting my heart and spot squares finished.    I have completed all the blocks for four of the colours.   Sewing in the ends has been a long long job!   I laid out the finished blocks  in the order I want them to sit in the finished piece and I am preparing to start joining them up.   I plan to join them using the mid shade in each colour way but I might change my mind on that after testing a few styles.   Here is the layout I am working on.


The picture shows almost all the squares in a row and there are are another eight rows to complete!  I was given a single ball of every colour of Paris Drops cotton yarn for Christmas and this is the project I came up with for that yarn.   The pattern would be great for using up oddments though and the design would look very different with random colours instead of these single colour stripes.   I am planning to make it again mixing all the colours up as an experiment 🙂

Yarn Review –  Drops Paris – this is a strong cotton yarn that works up using a 5mm hook/needles.    The yarn comes in a wide range of colours – 47 available at the time of writing.  Some of the colours say that they are made from recycled denim and those tend to be more harsh in texture.   In general the yarn is relatively soft for cotton.   Drops Paris is made up of many thin strands and does have a tendency to split.  This means you have to watch carefully as you work but if you do find it splitting it is easy to pull back out and correct.    One really big plus for me is that I have hardly found any breaks/knots in the yarn.   It is very reasonably priced – I am picking up odd additional balls as required for around £1 per 50g ball.

Stash buster project – Even though this blanket project is a stash buster itself, using small bits of yarn, I am still finding that I have oddments left over.   As a break from sewing in the ends on all these blocks I came up with a use for those oddments.    This is a hair accessory I made.

I have put up a separate post  – hair accessory instructions in case you want to have a go at this.    It is soooo quick and I am really pleased with the results.    I am using fairly thick cotton per the review above, but if made using lighter, softer acrylic yarn the strands form lovely spirals which you can mix and match with the straighter ribbons.

In other (non-crochet) news, I have been working on two knitted blanket patterns which I will be sharing next week.   One of them is a chunky, soft and cosy blanket made with some lovely 100% merino wool (shown below) that I picked up at a craft show.   The other is a much lighter baby blanket with stripes and hearts.   I am looking to back the baby blanket with fleece and put some crochet edging round it but at this stage the blocks are waiting to be sewn together.

I think that is all I have this week – back to sewing in ends and sewing up blocks for me!   Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂