Star Stitch

Mary Beth begins by noting that there are several variations of this pattern. You can change the number of spikes created in each stitch as well as the number of rows worked in between the star stitch rows. Mary Beth is demonstrating the 5-spike star as that is a common version of the stitch pattern. Once you understand how to work the stitch, it’s easy to explore the other variations.

To work the start stitch, Mary Beth figures out how many stars she would like on the swatch. For the number to start the swatch, she needs the number of stars times two and then add four. She’s making five stars, so she chains 14 stitches (5 times 2 is 10. 10 plus 4 is 14).

To work the star stitch in the foundation chain, Mary Beth follows these steps:
– Starting with second chain from hook, yarn over and draw through a loop in the next 5 chains (6 loops total on hook)
– Yarn over and draw through all six loops, angling the hook down when pulling through (1 loop remains on hook)
– Chain 1. First star stitch is complete.

Going forward for the remaining stars, Mary Beth follows these steps:
– Insert hook into the center (or eye) of the star stitch just made, yo and draw through a loop (2 loops on hook)
– Insert hook behind the last loop that was just picked up, going under 2 strands of yarn so it’s sturdy, yarn over draw through a loop (3 loops on hook)
– Go into the same chain from the last spike from the previous star stitch, yarn over and, draw through a loop (4 loops on hook)
– Yarn over and draw through a loop in each of the next 2 chains (6 loops total on hook)
– Yarn over and draw through all six loops, angling the hook down when pulling through (1 loop remains on hook)
– Chain 1. Next star stitch is complete.

This process is repeated for the three remaining star stitches. Mary Beth notes that she prefers a plain row of single crochet in between the star stitch rows because there is a big visual difference between the Right Side and the Wrong Side of the stitch. When working the plain single crochet row, Mary Beth works a single crochet into the eye of the stitch and each chain one. She adds one stitch by picking at the end of the row, to have 11 single crochets total. She chains three stitches and turns, so there are a total of 14 stitches to work into on the next star stitch row.