Christmas time already?

Wow, it's been awhile since I've been here, hasn't it? I guess this once a week thing isn't really working out for me at all! Oh well, better late than never...

So it's almost Christmas. Again. Time to put up the tree and organise presents.

This year, seeing we have a mobile toddler in the house, the tree has been put up inside the portacot (for it's protection). I reused the decorations from last year's jacaranda colour theme that L wanted but decided that the star was too heavy and kept wanting to make the tree lean, so I would replace it with something home made. I haven't really decided what yet... maybe a star or snowflake... maybe an angel.

But, while I was looking for inspiration for what to do, I had an idea for what to do with some of the milk bottle top rings that I've been collecting... Would you like to see?

I found a nice pattern for some itty bitty stars (with 5 points) but I thought they didn't really say "Christmas", so I played around a bit and tried them with 6 and 8 points... The 8 point ones look a little more snowflake-ish to me, what do you think? I'm going to play around with some different colours and yarns and see what happens. If you want to make some, the pattern for them is as follows:

Materials needed:
small amount of yarn (I used 8 ply, about 5.5m to make the 8 point star version)
3.5mm hook (or whatever size hook needed to make star small enough to fit inside milk bottle top ring)
milk bottle top ring
yarn needle

Abbreviations (International/UK terminology):
CH chain
SS slip stitch
DC double crochet
TR treble
MC magic circle

Pattern for 5 point star, changes for 6 and 8 point stars in (brackets).

Rnd1. magic circle [or CH5, SS into first CH to create a ring]
Rnd2. (Work all stitches into ring or MC) Standing TR [or CH3], *DC, TR, CH3, TR* 4 (5,7) times, DC, TR, CH3, SS into beginning standing TR [or third CH of initial CH3]
Rnd3. Turn, SS into CH3 space. *DC through CH3 space and around milk bottle top ring, DC9 (9,7) around milk bottle top ring* 5 (6,8) times. SS into initial DC. CH20, SS into initial DC. Fasten off, weave in ends.

That's it! You're done. A pretty little snowflake-esque star to hang on your tree, or embellish your gift with, and all done in about 10 minutes!