It’s supposed to be a star, but it’s more of a starfish shape, really. I am terrible at counting stitches in crochet. Absolutely awful. And this shouldn’t be so difficult, as double crochet stitches stand out pretty well, but still, this crocheted star blanket is sort of drunken star–shaped.
No Judgmental Babies, Please
And that’s okay. If the not-yet-born recipient of this blanket is going to be all judge-y, no more handmade goods for that baby!
(I’ve yet to meet a really judge-y baby, so I think I’m good.)
See, everything started out fairly well.
And from there it devolved into this mostly star-shaped thing that doesn’t like to fold up very well.
The parents of the intended recipient are both sensitive to cats, and there are no surfaces in my house that are both big enough for this blanket (it’s about five feet across) and avoided by my monster, so I unfortunately don’t have any full-size photos. We’ll just have to wait until there are some modeled shots in spring.
Crocheted Star Blanket Pattern
I do love the way this worked up though. The pattern is Beth’s Little Star Afghan(Ravelry link), a free pattern. I used the now discontinued Mission Falls 136 Merino, and a size F crochet hook. I don’t know what the numbers are for crochet hooks. Something smaller than a G and bigger than an E. I’m so helpful.
So now this blanket is tucked safely away in a plastic bag until I can see the mom-to-be, hopefully in a few weeks!
I had the same thing happen with my Rock Chalk Wilfred blanket: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/ashpags/star-afghan
It was definitely more starfish than star. I attributed it to the fact that the knitting ends up going in different directions on each side of each point, and since my row and stitch gauge are not identical, one side was always shorter than the other, so there was some curling of the points. Could it be possible that the same thing is happening with the crochet version?
Maybe? I have seen photos of this blanket on Ravelry that look much more starlike, and I definitely know I had trouble counting stitches when making this, so it could be inherent design issue or operator fail, or some combination. 😀
So I went and investigated! Most of the knit ones also swirl, so one clever knitter modded the way she did the decreases: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/pyrrha/star-afghan Maybe some of the crocheters did something similar? Or maybe they just blocked the crap out of the FO so it would be a proper star? Idk.
There are stars that spin. In fact, most of them do. You could just say you were making that kind of star!
Oh those are clever modifications. I’ll have to look into any crochet modifications if I make this again; I already know I’d prefer to dc2tog instead of skipping two spaces, and I think that might help some of the wonky sides as well. Or I could just knit that blanket, as it’s super cute!
I figure Mander ain’t raising a judging baby, but if it comes up, I will tell her Auntie Ashley says it’s accurate for a specific type of star. 😀