Star Stitch

Hi all. I'm Mary Beth Temple, and I would like to show you the star stitch. Now it has other names. Sometimes it's called the Marguerite stitch or the Daisy stitch. And there are tons of variations that change the number of spikes, and change the number of rows between the star stitches. But we're going to do a five-spike star stitch. And once you've practiced this, if you come across other variations in your crochet exploration, it'll be familiar to you and you'll understand what that designer's talking about. So let's take a closer look at the star stitch. Okay, we're gonna begin with a slipknot on our hook. Now the starting chain is a little mathy. You want to take the number of star stitches that you want and multiply that by two and then add four chains. So say, I wanted to have five Marguerite or star stitches. I would go five times two is 10, plus four is 14. So let's chain 14, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, Now I always advocate working in the back or the bump of the chain instead of the front or the V. But especially for this star stitch it's so much easier to work in the back bump. It's easier to count and it gives you a nicer edge. So if you can stand to do it, this is a place that you should do it. It's important to remember that this variation on the star stitch is a five-spike stitch. And the reason I'm going to say that 18 times, is because when you're counting and you want to make sure that you got through, the correct number of loops, you're counting one, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. So it's good to know that this is a five-spike stitch. So I'm going to begin in the second chain from hook. I'm going to insert my hook in the chain, yarn over and draw up a loop. And I'm going to do that a total of five times. So that was one, two, three, four, five. So I have six loops on my hook, the working loop that I started with and my five pickups. I'm going to yarn over and draw through all of those loops. And you'll notice I angle my hook down slightly to make sure it get caught on all those loops when I'm trying to draw it through. And I'm gonna chain one to close the stitch. So there is my first star stitch, and you can see it made a little corner. Moving forward, we have to do five pickups, right? 'Cause we have five spikes in this stitch. So we're going in the center hole of the stitch. We call that the eye. That's the eye of the stitch. So we're inserting in the eye, draw up a loop. We are inserting behind the last loop that we picked up. You want to go under two strands of yarn so that it's nice and sturdy and draw up a loop. You're going into the same chain or stitch, as the last spike of the last stitch, and drawing up a loop. Now you're going to draw up a loop in each of the next two chains or stitches. One, two. So here's my five spikes. One, two, three, four, five. Here is my working loop, so that's six. Yarn over, draw through all those loops. Chain one to close. There is my second star next to my first star. Let's do one more slowly. We're gonna insert in the eye, and draw up a loop. We're going to insert behind those two strands on the end and draw up a loop. We're going to insert into the chain that contains the last spike of the previous stitch and draw up a loop. We're going to draw up a loop in each of the next two stitches or chains. One, two. Make sure that you give those loops that you're drawing up. Make sure you give them some space to breathe. Give them some room. If you pull them up too tightly or you work too close to the throat of your hook, the stitch is going to look more naughty and less star. Yarn over, draw through six, angling your hook a little, to make sure you don't get caught. All right, let's go a little faster. One, two, three, four, five. Yarn over, draw through them all, chain one to close. One more. One, two, three, four, five. And close. So there are my five star stitches, one, two, three, four, five. Now, with the star or the Marguerite stitch there are probably dozens of variations. I prefer the ones that have a plain row of single crochet between the star stitch rows, and I'll tell you why. I think there is a really big visual difference between the right side of the work which is here, and the wrong side of the work. And I feel like if you do Marguerite stitch on every row or star stitch on every row, that the resulting fabric looks a little messy, a little sloppy, you don't get the detail. Obviously, if you're following a pattern, you're going to do the one that the designer suggests because that's the look that you wanted or you wouldn't have selected that project. But if I'm just making a piece, maybe a scarf, I like to do the variation that has the single crochet row in between. So, when I'm going back on my single crochet row, I'm going to insert in the eye of the hook, eye of the stitch, and make a stitch there, and then in the chain. In the eye, in the chain. And I'm going to do that all the way across. When I get to the end, I'm going to add one stitch by picking up the chain stitch that we skipped. Remember, when you're doing most stitches you put your first... Your first draw up a loop is in the second chain from hook. I'm gonna go in that first chain that's just hanging out there empty, and put a single crochet in there. So I should now have an odd number of stitches. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11. So, remember, I had five stitches, I wanted two for each of those stitches. So that's 10. Here's my extra guy, that's 11. Now I'm going to chain three. See, there is map in this. One, two, three. Now I'm doing another star stitch row. So I'm going to skip that first chain, insert my hook into each of the next two chains and draw up a loop. One, two. And then in this case, I'm going to draw up a loop in each of the next three stitches. It's the two for the star stitch, and that little extra guy that I put in the corner. So, one, two, three. I'll have six loops on my hook. One, two, three, four, five, six. Yarn over, draw through all six, chain one to close. So my chain's coming up the side, that's what's giving me my height, and then I can move on. I have a bigger swatch. Let's take a look at that. So remember on my single crochet row, I added that extra stitch in that lonely little chain, that's hanging out all by itself. Then I change three, one, two, three. And you want to do that pretty loosely because you're going to work in these chains over again. So now I'm going to the second chain from hook, drawing up a loop. This is the same side of the row, started the row that we just did, I'm just doing it again 'cause it's a little fiddly. So now I have three loops on my hook, 'cause I had one, two, three chains. I skipped the first one. I drew up a loop in each of the next two. Now I'm going to draw up a loop in each of the next three single crochets, remembering that that third one is this little one I added for the corner. One, two, three. I'll have six loops on my hook, yarn over, draw through all six, chain one to close. Now, I am back to doing the stitch the way we had been doing Insert in the eye, behind the last spike, in the same stitch that the last spike of the previous stitch was in, and in each of the next two. Yarn over, draw through it all, chain one to close. In the eye, behind the last spike, in the last stitch in each of the next two stitches. And that's all that we're going to do. We're gonna continue across the row, chain one and turn, single crochet in each eye and chain space. And remember to add that last little single crochet in that empty chain one, at the end of the row. Remember, there are dozens of variations. So your pattern might be a little different than what I just showed you. But this is definitely one of those stitches. It's so much easier to know what you're doing when you can visually see where to place the hook. So I'm Mary Beth Temple. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I'll see you again real soon. Bye-bye.