Feeling Scroogey

I love the holidays. I really do.  Each year I get really excited about all of the Christmas activities I want to participate in: the holiday events, light shows, Christmas villages, decorations, cookie swaps...all while listening to songs by Andy Williams and Bing Crosby and smelling cinnamon and nutmeg wafting through my kitchen.

Somehow, this year Christmas has snuck up on me though, and I'm suddenly realizing that I have probably missed my chance to attend the majority of these extravaganzas. Note to self for next year: the second weekend in Dec. is the best time to take advantage of the above. It's probably not a huge loss because Little C. isn't really big enough to know what's going on this year. However, I definitely have to be more organized about it for next Christmas.

Even though I've been thinking about Christmas since July and doing my Christmas knitting/ crocheting since then, I have been pretty lethargic about holiday decorations this year as well. I was unable to put out my usual decor because Little C. would have pulled everything down like a rabid monkey. Due to my husband's prodding we did put up a tree, but it is surrounded by a plastic, circular gate (courtesy of my sister-in-law). It does a fantastic job of keeping Little C. from rappelling off this evergreen wonder, but it does sort of kill the holiday mood to have such an eyesore sitting in the middle of the living room. It's kind of reminiscent of a dog kennel but without the accompanying pee-smell.

Anyway, I have been trying to get out of this miniature pre-holiday funk by getting my cookie-making supplies ready (I have a cookie swap next week), wrapping the gifts, blasting a little Bing on Grooveshark, and by making this beaded crochet star for the top of my tree. I used to use a big pink and gold bow as a tree topper but I can't find it anywhere in the bins of decorations, and now that I have a son, I've been rethinking my gold and pink color scheme. I thought I'd change it up this year by making a new topper. Nothing says "manly" like crochet beads, right?

This technique is the same used for the crochet necklaces I was obsessed with this summer. First, take embroidery floss (preferably the kind on a spool so you'll have enough length) and string a ton of beads onto it. You can always take them off at the end if you have too many, but if you run out of floss or beads while crocheting, you're basically out of luck. 

Then crochet whatever design you want. I started off with chaining 10 and joining in a circle, then double crocheting 20 sts into the circle. From there I chained off the center, and then came back using double crochets into the center. Then I started off another spoke, alternating long and short lengths. The final step was crocheting the border around the edge.

I just eyeballed it (which is why it's not very symmetrical). I didn't know if this would even work out so I didn't really bother with figuring out how to make it work mathematically. Also, I'm feeling lethargic! And, I'm not a very mathematical person anyway.

I starched it and pinned it like I did with my crochet snowflakes last year. Even though it was stiff, it was a little floppy still when it dried; it wasn't working out so well as a tree topper.

So I decided to reinforce the back, just using those "gold thingies" sticking out of the tree. That is their official name, you know.

I just cut them to support the long spokes going to the center and used a glue gun to attach. It's one of the first times in my life I've used a glue gun and have not burned myself. Hooray!

The supports were definitely necessary. Even though the topper is only one dimensional, it works with the tree for now. Maybe I'll think about switching it up next year. I'll add it to my list of things I'd like to accomplish for next year's Christmas.