Hit with the crochet stick!
Mar 11, 2015
I keep thinking how nice it would be to write another blog post, but time just keeps slipping away! So here I am, coffee'd up to the eyeballs, sitting up late in the dark, making my way through the ever growing to do list! First up, the blog!
Recently I bought a cheap little bedside lamp, to help me to see when I'm up until silly-o'clock crocheting. It was nice, but plain, and that just won't do around here! So I decided to hit it with the crochet stick :) I had a bunch of Rico Essentials DK cotton left over from my mini granny square cushion and the colours were calling my name.
I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do, but like most of my projects I just let it evolve as it went along. I thought flowers might work nicely and as I wanted to join them together as I went I set about coming up with a pointed petal design. I'm sure it has been done before, a starflower of sorts, but this is my version ;) I'll share the simple pattern with you at the end of the post.
Now came the fun part - mixing and matching the colours!
Can you see that 6-pointed flower there? Yes, that is going to annoy me forever! I must not have been paying attention for a while there... As they were already joined I decided to leave it be - it's our little secret ;)
The lampshade was flared at the bottom, and we were away for the weekend so I couldn't try my flowers on for size so I had to wing it! I added some leaves to fill in some of the gaps, and to make it look a little more interesting, then crossed my fingers that all would be well when I returned home to see if it fitted!
Luckily it did! Well mostly anyway... there were a few small tweaks to be made and I set about the next task of joining it up and creating some kind of border at the top and the bottom to hold it all in place.
And of course there were those ends to deal with... I decided to go with a mix of stripes and my favourite of the moment, POMPOMS! along the fringe of the lampshade cover.
Only it was not quite finished. With all the stretching of the cover to get it on and off the lampshade it was a touch baggy. So I decided to take it off and dunk it in some water in the hope that it might shrink...
After all my hard work this was easier said than done! But it worked and I was able to gently stretch it enough to fit over the lampshade where I manipulated everything into place and wrapped it up with some extra yarn so that it wouldn't move. By the morning it was dry enough to remove the binding and see if my plan had worked...
I was so pleased. It was holding together beautifully. The only thing I should have done, had I not been so hasty, was to place a layer of cling film between the wet cotton and the lampshade. The colour ran a wee bit, but it's only noticeable if you look really closely and I can live with that!
Now, as promised, I'll share the pattern with you...
The Little Bee's Starflower pattern:
Materials
- Small amounts of yarn in colours of your choice. I used a range of colours of Rico Essentials DK cotton.
- E - 3.5mm hook
- Yarn needle
- Scissors
Abbreviations (US terms):
Rnd - round st - stitch
ch - chain sc - single crochet
hdc - half double crochet
dc - double crochet tc - triple crochet
Notes:
- For a tidy finish when changing colours this pattern uses an Invisible Join instead of the usual sl st.
- Any sized yarn can be used to make these flowers, you'll just need to adjust the size of your hook to suit.
- To make a ch2 picot: ch2, sl st into the back of the first ch st. This will make a little point.
Round One (Colour #1): Begin with a magic circle, ch 1 (count as the first sc) and work 9 more sc stitches into the magic circle, make an invisible join in the top of the initial ch 1. Pull the tail from the magic circle tight. (10)
Round Two (Change to colour #2): Attach with a sl st to the first st from Rnd 1, ch 3 (count as the first dc & ch1, OR work a standing dc ch1), *dc in the next st, ch1* repeat this sequence until the end, make an invisible join in the top of the first dc (or sl st if you prefer). (20)
Round Three (Change to colour #3): Join with a sl st in the first ch1 space of Round Two, in the same ch1 space {hdc, dc, tc}, ch2 picot, skip the top of the dc st and in the next ch1 space {tc, dc, hdc, sl st}, *skip the top of the next dc st and in the next ch1 space {sl st, hdc, dc, tc}, ch2 picot, in next ch1 space {tc, dc, hdc, sl st}* repeat this sequence 3 more times to create 5 pointed petals, fasten off with sl st to first sl st. Weave in ends. (45)
I hope you have fun making your own Little Bee Starflowers! I'd love to see what you come up with. If you feel like sharing please feel free to post to The little bee Facebook page or over on Instagram with the hashtag #littlebeestarflower
Happy hooking!
Alia xx
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