FO Friday: Twinkle, twinkle little star

Last December (or maybe the one before!), in the midst of my frenzied gift knitting, I decided that I wanted to make something for me. Earlier this year, my husband picked up a new sideboard with glass-fronted cabinets in the top half for our living room, and as soon as I saw them I knew that during the Christmas period they would look lovely with a simple garland of stars hung across the fronts.

I considered knitting the stars, but I’m not a big fan of knitting small fiddly things, especially when you have to make several of them; as far as I’m concerned, projects like these are what crochet is made for. After browsing many, many patterns (both for stars and snowflakes) on Ravelry, I stumbled across One Dog Woof’s crocheted star ornament pattern via Instagram, where someone had crocheted individual stars to put on Christmas cards (a lovely idea, and one I would consider copying if I ever have time!).

The pattern is nice and straightforward, and I worked up the first star pretty quickly (definitely under half an hour). I even managed to work a magic loop for the first time (I have tried before, but it has always eluded me). Within a couple of hours I had quite a pile of stars. I’m not going to claim they are all perfect, they are absolutely not - I kept misreading the pattern, or not quite putting the hook in the right place, but once they’re all displayed en masse, you really can’t tell. After about seven, I had memorised the pattern, and I’m sure that a proficient crocheter could memorise the pattern much faster! I ended up with 13 stars, which I threaded onto thin silver ribbon, looping the ribbon back on itself at the joins between the stars so they didn’t slip.

What yarn did I use? Paintbox Yarns Metallic DK in the colourway Martini.* Paintbox Yarns launched this yarn at the end of the summer/early autumn, and it immediately made me think of Christmas decorations, even though it’s marketed as a summer yarn. The yarn has a chainette construction, which is lovely and smooth, and half the yarn is metallic and the other half plain (white in the Martini colourway). The yarn has a shimmer to it rather than a full-on sparkle, but I really liked that. I held the yarn double for my stars, and while it crocheted smoothly, I did have to use quite a lot of moisturiser on my hands otherwise the dry bits of my skin would catch on the plies within the chains. Overall I was pleased with the yarn, and holding it double gave a subtly marled effect that is festive without being too blingy.

I finished my garland of stars in plenty of time for Christmas, but what with one thing and another I never quite got round to hanging them properly, so instead they were laid across the front of the sideboard for the whole of Christmas. I’ve put them away now, along with the hooks I bought to hang them (then mislaid repeatedly...), so hopefully the stars will occupy their proper position next year!

Pattern: One Dog Woof’s crocheted star ornament pattern

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Metallic DK*
Ravelry project page**

*Supplied for review purposes. Affiliate link.

**Ravelry link. May cause issues for people with photosensitivity.