Howdy! Yes, yes, I know, it’s been a while! I’ve been busy with my little family and relearning the world as a mum!

With my sparse free time, I’ve decided to spend it getting ready for Christmas. Yep, Christmas is less than 4 months away!!

The first project I decided to tackle was making a new star for my Christmas tree. This was a project I’ve been thinking about for a while now.

I picked up the wire star a few years ago in the post Christmas sales. I had full intentions of wrapping it in beads, it just never happened right away! So of course, when I finally got around to doing it, the plan changed!

I remembered some yarn I had made many moons ago. A lovely alpaca I had dyed and spun, incorporating sequins into it. I had to convince myself to use it, it was just too pretty!

  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
The basics. A wire star, a skein of hand spun alpaca yarn and a set of battery operated Christmas lights!
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Baby optional!
wire star with lights
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
First step – wire the lights to the wire frame
star with yarn outlining
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
So, I crochet around the wire before I did anything else. This step probably isn’t necessary, I didn’t end up using it how I imagined and mostly ended up crocheting directly to the frame in most places anyways.
wire star with crochet middle
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
I crochet the centre of the star first, on both sides, starting from the wire and working into the middle.
crocheting the stars points
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Then it was onto the points! I went round and round the points, starting from the centre and working to the tips.
star near completion
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Then! This happened! I ran out of wool on the very last point, only a few cm from the end!
alpaca fibre yellow gold colour
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Luckily the colour is my standard yellow dye, and I had already dyed some alpaca fibre.
hand carding alpaca
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
So I went through the rest of the steps of processing … first carding …
spinning on a drop spindle
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Then spinning (in the garage after BB had gone to bed, whilst watching Guy swear at his draws!) On a drop spindle non the less, because the original yarn was created in a time before I owned a spinning wheel!
sequin yarn
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Tada! enough yarn to finish! Phew what a mission to get just a teensy bit more yarn to finish!
finished star
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
My beautiful finished star!
star with lights
  • Pin It
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Shining in all its glory!

Don’t be afraid to use that special yarn! There is a project suited for it I’m sure! And, apparently, you can always just make more!

I’ll be sure to share photos in December when its all set up!

I hope your doing well in these interesting times we are living in. Please drop me a comment here or on Facebook and let me know your creative covid adventures! And if your planning any Christmas makings!

Love Cate