Starfish

The last few days have been dull, overcast and the garden has had a good watering. A fascinating man, David King (who predicts the weather based on the moon's cycles and signs from nature), on the TV, assured the nation that this was nature's way of nurturing the corn after the 'dry, hot spell' we have had, so it can put on some good growth ready for the harvest. 'All well and good for the plants' I say, but the weather can have a tendency to dampen down the spirits, so what better way to cheer up a gloomy weekend than to do some sun, sea and sand inspired crochet!

Starfish Pinterest Board

I have been gathering pictures of starfish over on Pinterest for a little while, whilst pondering on my design for a starfish. I love to use Pinterest to gather images; that I then use to help inspire my design ideas.  I used the starfish pictures to help me create a basic stitch diagram of the starfish, I was totally clear about how the centre of the starfish would look and could draw that out straight away.  However, I knew that the legs of the starfish would have to be designed with the hook and yarn, rather than my pencil and pens.

I was delighted that my initial diagram translated well into a crocheted piece, so far so good.

For the legs I knew I had to get some height away from the centre of the starfish pretty quickly, so added in the chains. I also wanted to create some texture in the legs, so puff stitches were perfect for this!

Then I had a colour dilemma, the red was far too bold for this part of the starfish, so I unravelled and knocked the colour contrast right down and went with the vanilla (the pale yellow) instead to blend better with the strong yellow and orange hues.

This was a much better choice - notice, how a little later, when I reintroduce the vanilla in round 6, this has the effect of making the 4th and 6th round look like they are the same round. With the strong yellow peeking through.

The next few rounds focus on lengthening the legs and repeating the puff stitch pattern to create a ridge down the centre of the starfish leg.

Then came the final round; I wanted to create the effect of the spines that some starfish have, so I introduced the picot edge.

Here's the end result!

The plan is to attach the Starfish onto a bag to create a Beach Bag ready for my holidays.

 Pattern and photo tutorial coming soon! 

The Starfish is made using DROPS Paris in shades:

35 Vanilla

14 Strong Yellow

13 Orange

12 Red

Drops Paris is a lovely soft yarn made from 100% cotton. It gives great stitch definition and comes in an extensive range of colours from the bold and vibrant to the soft and subtle. Aran weight, perfect for clothing, decorative items, wash cloths and so many more projects. I love it, top of my favourite list of yarns to use!

More about Starfish.

Starfish Pattern