Adding Them Up....

I'm away at a Home-schooling Camp with my 5yr old Connie at the moment, have been since Sunday, and with all of the 'to-ing' and 'fro-ing' (and sitting around) I've managed to knit up another 15 stars using the tutorial in my sidebar for the sick kids I told you all about back here.

That will bring the total amount of Stars crafted up by the incredibly generous community of Cobar (and surrounds) to 267, WOW!!!! Not many to make now to reach our goal of 280 before the 10th of December - when we send them off to the Westmead Children's Hospital for Xmas... 

Are you involved in anything for Charity this Xmas???? I'd love to hear about it.....

Knitted Star Tutorial

I've been knitting (and hooking) away at stars over the past couple of weeks in an attempt to bring smiles to the faces of the 220 kids who are stuck in the Westmead Children's Hospital over Xmas this year. My local community is helping out as well and we already have a whopping 60+ stars adorning the Charity Tree in my Shop. 

  

So, today I thought it would be fun to share my little knitted Xmas Star pattern and to make it even easier I've put it into a tutorial...

Let me first begin by saying that this pattern was not entirely designed by me - I picked it up off a gorgeous elderly lady who happened upon my store last year. She briefly told me a simple equation for crating a 6 pointed star and from there I've crafted a 5 pointed one as well....

 

Before we start, gather up your supplies. I'm using 5mm straight needles and some Malabrigo Worsted (approx. 10ply). These stars don't even use 5g of yarn so scraps are perfect!!!

Abbrev : : k = knit, sl = slip, k2tog = knit 2 stitches together, psso = pass slip stitch over, st = stitch.

If you have trouble with any of these stitchs I'm sure Mr Google would be more than happy to help you out with a how-to... 

 

Using the Long-tail method cast on 66 stitches.

 

Row 1 - Knit 4 stitches, (sl1, k2tog, psso, k8) 5 times, sl1, k2tog, psso, k4.

After Row 1 you should be able to start seeing the points of the star forming as numbered in the picture below....

 

Row 2 - k3, (sl1, k2tog, psso, k6) 5 times, sl1, k2tog, psso, k3.

 

Row 3 - k2, (sl1, k2tog, psso, k4) 5 times, sl1, k2tog, psso, k2.

 

Row 4 - k1, (sl1, k2tog, psso, k2) 5 times, sl1, k2tog, psso, k1.

 

Row 5 - (sl1, k2tog, psso) 5 times.

 

Row 6 - O.K... Now you're nearly done - (K2tog) 3 times, k1.

Cut an 8 inch tail. Thread the tail through the live stitches....

 

Pull up tight and sew the short row closed like so...

 

Now, if you'd like a 5 pointed star - it's even easier, simply cast on 55sts intead of 66.

You will be repeating Rows 1 - 5 (repeat what's in the brackets of each row 4 times instead of 5).

 

I hope I haven't confused you too much yet... :)

So, by casting on 55sts instead of 66 you will now only have 5 points to your star instead of 6....

 

After Row 5 cut an 8 inch tail, thread it through the live stitches on the needle and pull up tight....

 

Sew in your ends, make a loop at the top for hanging and you're done....

 

Pretty easy, right???? In the picture below I pinned out each of the points of the star on the left and steamed it with a hot iron. This makes for a much nicer pointier star - don't you think???  

Enjoy!!!! *^_^*

Hooked!!!

This past couple of days has seen me hooking away on a very special project which will be added to my Xmas gift giving pile this year..  

Thanks to the introduction to an amazing on-line Mag by the gorgeous Jenni over at Baa-me Knits I'm now totally hooked on Craft Sanity!!!! Have you heard of it before??? Well I hadn't until earlier this week (thanks Jen) and I just LOVE IT!!!!

This week I've also been busily knitting (and hooking) away on stars (37 to be exact) for a charity thing my local community is working on...

It's super exciting and I can't wait to tell you all about it in the next couple of days... So, until then - Happy Hooking!!!!