The Knitted Christmas Star pattern is up

It has now been tested by a couple of people (Thank you so much Eddie and Caitriona!) and apparently it actually makes sense, so here is the pattern for the Christmas Star.

Knitted Christmas star

The star is knit entirely in the round, the centre of each side first, then each points, using stitches from both center pieces. The first one is a bit slower to knit, but once you’ve done a few they’re a lot faster. It now takes me about an hour to make a star from start to finish. In aran weight it gives a 9cm wide star. Using a yarn with stretch, like wool, is much easier than cotton or silk, as Eddie painfully found out.

I even went and set the pattern up with its own Ravelry page, so please upload photos if you do decide to make one as I’d really like to see how yours come out. If you don’t have a Ravelry account, feel free to email me a photo, or leave one in the comments, I’d love to see them.

This is the first ever pattern which I’ve written out, so I’ll welcome any suggestions for improvement, and I look forward to seeing what other knitters make of it.

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Knitted Christmas stars

After making so many little hearts, I started wondering about other stuffed shapes I could come up with, and which might be suited to the holiday season. For me, stars are the most Christmassy shape. I used to cut some out of cardboard and shiny paper when I was a child to fit the Christmas tree color scheme that my mother had decided on, and would then leave them all over the house. I’ve been meaning to knit a Celestine for a while to put on top of the Christmas tree, but for now I fancied something smaller and even more of an instant gratification. Something I could easily knit in one sitting.

I played around a bit with different ideas for a five pointed star. I wanted the stitches to go from the centre out, and I wanted it to have as little seaming and fiddling as possible (they’re still a bit fiddly in places, but I can live with that). I also didn’t want the increases or decreases to be hidden in the seams, I wanted the shaping stitches to be a bit of a feature. There’s been a fair amount of trial and error, but I think I’ve now got it.  I’m pretty happy with the result I must admit, I like the overall look of those.

Knitted star in aran weight yarn

These are slightly bigger than the little hearts… This purple star made in aran weight yarn and knit on 3.5mm needles has a ‘wingspan’ of 9cm.

I’m currently writing up the pattern, but before I share it, I’m going to first make sure it all makes sense by asking a couple of friends to try and knit one from my written instructions. It’s the first time I try to write out a pattern, so I just want to make sure it’s more than just making sense in my own warped mind. Once I’m satisfied with how clear it all is, I’ll post the pattern here.

It only takes a short time to knit a star, and once you’ve done one the second one is even faster, so hopefully there will still be time to put some on your tree!