Crochet Christmas Decorations :: Ta-dah!!

Hello, and welcome to a beautifully bright and festive hooky Ta-dah day! Yippeeee, my favourite kind of a day!!! Firstly though, I'd like to say thank you ever so much for all your wonderfully enthusiastic responses to the early glimpses of these little decs in my last post, I really love it when you love what I'm up to. Thank you.....I think you're going to like today's pictures!!

I've been so incredibly happy immersing myself in this latest project, it's honestly had me leaping off the furniture with pure giddy excitement. It's been really good to have my old creative bounce back I have to say.

As with most of my designs and patterns, I started out with a very clear idea of what I wanted to try and make before I even picked up my hook. I wanted a simple circular shape, something that would be easy and quick to make up. Nothing too complicated or faffy and plenty of scope for playing with colour (of course). I remembered a pretty little pattern I'd seen in the quirky granny crochet book I've got (remember I showed you some pages from it in this post? The book is called "Granny Crochet Favourites", written by Jean Leinhauser & Rita Weiss). It was actually a pattern for a Potholder, but I loved the simplicity of the circular design and thought I could adapt it and re-work it somehow.

So on Sunday morning I sat and had a go at working the original potholder pattern, working my way out of the brain freeze that always happens with written patterns. Keep at it, frog it back, try again, scribble notes, alter stitch numbers, scribble more notes and soon enough things begin to fall into place.....

.....and the beginnings of a great little workable pattern starts to come about.

I started out making simple circular shapes, then went on to attempt various edgings. I tried lots of different picot edgings (none of which looked right) and some little scallop edgings (which I loved but made the whole thing look too flowery).

Then with a lot of ooomphing and tsking and harumphing and frogging I finally managed to produce what I was after :: a pointy triangle edging.

WOW, a pointy triangle, that was a GREAT moment!

Cos you see the pointy triangle edging can magically transform a humble circle............

...............into a  S T A R!

Yaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first attempts were made using Stylecraft acrylic as that was what was nearest to hand at the time, but I soon abandoned that and got stuck in with my cotton stash. I think cotton yarn makes the best decorations, I really do. Something about the unwoollyness of it that I love for making decs, and the colours are very vibrant too. This particular cotton yarn is called Rico Creative Cotton, you can read a little more about it in this post (scroll down near the bottom). Its a lovely yarn, reasonably priced and comes in the most delicious colours :: you can buy it from First4Yarns and they've even got all my "Attic24 colours" selected ready for you look.

oH My. WhAt FuN! These decorations are SuCh FuN to make! Not only do you get to pull together some sooooper dooooper colour combos, but you can also get really giddy over embellishments too. Yes, I love nothing more than embellishing my hooky with some colourful buttons, beads and bells. It's the icing on the cake. For me, it turns an excited jiggy-jig moment into a deliriously happy leap-off-the-furniture moment.

I'm telling you now, making these decorations is seriously addictive.

Circles and stars with cute little beady dangly bits can be whizzed up in no time at all.

Last night I went to visit a friend who is also of Hooky Persuasion, and over two cups of tea and the most divine cupcake with swirly wirly icing, I produced six circles ready to transform into decs.

ooooooooooooo yum yum yum, the colours are just so scrummy, don't you think?

And ooo ooo ooo, those teeny tiny little bells are to die for, so tinkly and festive!

Yes, Little B thinks so too, he has taken rather a shine to my decs. In fact, I ended up giving him his very own hooky decoration (minus the buttons and beads) in an attempt to keep him away from mine. It sort of worked. For a weeny while at least.

So.... as of this afternoon I have managed to complete six decorations look, with another two in flat-circle form awaiting their stuffing and embellishments.

Not only that, but I've also managed to finish off the entire photographic bit of the pattern/tutorial for you. Yes! I really, honestly have!! Don't ask me how I managed it, but somehow I did. Admittedly Little B spent rather more time than usual learning to Play Independently, and he did good for his Mummy for the most part. We also have an extremely messy house and an alarming lack of clean clothes, but hey ho, I did the photographs!

So I shall now begin the labour-intensive task of uploading the shed load of step by step pictures and writing the equally large shed load of words to accompany them. And then you too will be able to get giddy over your very own hooky decs.

I'll be right back as soon as that Minor Miracle occurs....see you soon I hope!

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Comments

[MARTA]

LINDAS LAS ESTRELLAS.¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ TE FELICITO!!!!!!

[Betty]

Good Heavens but they are beautifull. Its the first time that I am doing this kind of chat thing on the web. I love crocheting and would love to know where you get all the patterns from!

[Anne Sweeney]

My goodness!!! I am familar with your site but these "hooky decs" REALLY caught my eye. I am going to make these up starting as soon as I can find some of that Rico Creative Cotton locally or save up my pennies for an order. These are so adorable and bright(my kind of bling)I am going to make at least 6 for every family member for their tree this year. THANKS for a wonderful site and I am always thrilled when I read your blog.

[Melissa Langer]

hi lucy!
happy happy new year!
i love all that you do, create, express and share!
what a wonderful journey you share with us!
:) melissa

[Heather O]

Absolutely beautiful, and so inspiring! Thank you for sharing!

[Halldóra]

These are so cute ! :-)

[Wendy]

Totally in LOVE!!!!
any change you tell me how to make one??!! PLEASE...
Lots of love,
Wendy

[Suz]

Another fabulous idea l see popping up every where.....love them so simple but oh! soooooo effective...love them

[kiri]

The decorations are cute, and I surely will make some, but the best part of the post is when you write about your messy house and lack of clean clothes! That makes me feel better, as I've got the same "problem"!! I use all the time on my "yarn addiction", no time for boring housekeeping ;-)
Thank you for a very very nice blog

[Couson]

OH!!That's so lovely & peps!!!Funny work,I love it!Couson

[Juliana Noronha Dutra]

So beautfull, so happy! wonderfull!
thanks for sharing.
um grande abraço
Juliana.

[Kate]

These are ace....so bright, so colourful, I love love love!!

[Bunches of Yarns]

Thank you! I must say how much I appreciate your detailed work. Your pictures are great, I will have to make a couple of those. Thanx again. ^__^

[handmaidliset]

All the ornaments are so beautiful!! Looks really great!

[Beth]

WOW! I'm inspired! I'm a new crocheter, and I can't wait to try these! love, Beth

[Belinda from Melbourne]

Lovely Lucy! So scrummy delicious and wonderful!!! And I love your donate button, will definately be using it soon!

Big hug, Belinda

[Eleanor]

Yay! I've been pondering what to make as christmas gifts for my staff this year, and now you've provided the answer! Can't wait to get home and give these little beauties a whirl around the hook :-)

[Karen Wollenberg]

Lucy, These ornaments are brilliant! Thanks so much for posting the instructions.

[Sandy]

These are so cute. I think I'm going to crochet some up and hang them from the mirror in our living room. I was trying to figure something different to do in there this year and I think you've given it to me.

Thanks

Sandy

[Linda]

Wow! I love your Blog, love your work and think your colour choices are scrummy. I'm in awe of how you juggle your time to find space to crotchet and invent patterns whilst running a young family. Feel very connected to you as I have a granddaughter the same age as your Baby B. Go girl!

[Kim Fluck]

My dream someday is to have a Christmas tree decorated only with home-made goodies. I have just the right yarn for this project. Thank you for all the work it took for you to post these tutorials. I've been addicted to knitting for the past two years, but I ready to dive head first back into crochet to make these lovely decorations. My tree will be AMAZING next year!

[Joanne]

I was just here earlier and there was a post from Dec 4- and now it's gone. I guess you are working on that labor intensive task of getting photos/tut up an running

so appreciate all the hard work you put in!!!!

xxoxoxoxoxo Joanne

[josiekitten]

Gorgeous little hooky creations! Thanks so much for the inspiration that you give us all.

[SUSI]

AHHHH QUE LINDO LUCY, COMO TUDO QUE VC FAZ! SEU BLOG É MARAVILHOSO, PARABÉNS!

[Carol McCraw Yarbro]

Lucy, you're just the best! THANK YOU for introducing me to the fabulous hooky side of life. I just finished my first granny blanket as a Christmas present for a friend stationed at Bagram in Afghanistan. I'm going to make some of these super cool ornaments for her to decorate her CHU (containerized housing unit!).