20-11-2016

Plan to use as a first brioche pattern!
Followed cast on tutorial from newstitchaday: http://newstitchaday.com/twisted-german-cast-on-knitting/
Pretty sure I used this cast on for socks previously, but can’t remember how to do it anymore!

After two decrease rounds I am inclined to think a design without decreases or increases would make a better first project. This was just too tempting to pass by because of its small size. Decreases, however, are indeed finicky. I think i may have needed smaller needles also - straight bits look ok, but corners look a bit messy. There is a useful video on br4stdec here - http://mycrafts.com/diy/how-to-br4st-dec-brioche-4-stitch...

I am blocking. The star is larger than I was expecting - a bit bigger than coaster size - which means it can double as coaster when it’s not christmas. I like dual purposing. Its a very good little project to try out brioche. The first two decrease rounds were however a bit of a learning experience so my star does not look perfect. After that it gets a bit easier. I have made a mental note to check that my decreases always have the corner st on the cable needle. The final round I slipped the sl sts knitwise - it seemed to make sense that way. I often stuggled with where my yarn had to go at end of rounds - But overall turned out all right for a learning project!

My star is not very pointy - I think my cast on could have been looser - that might make the difference. My second star - MC red I cast on looser and its definitely more pointy.

Alternate br4stdec

Am trying this technique on second star. It gave a neater result for me, allthough I am not exactly clear on how middle st and A cross each other - I ended up just dropping and picking up again the middle st. Looks fine to me and I don’t have such an extra long center st. as with the first technique.

Alternate size

I figure it will be easy to make some smaller ones :
100st, then Skip to Rd 5 after Rd2
Or 80 sts and skip to Rd 7 after Rd 2

Starching

I hung my stars in the window where they very quickly went limp - I live on the coast and it is very humid always. So I decided I’d experiment with some starching. Heated a tablespoon of cornstarch in half cup of water until became thick and clear. Covered the stars in this and left to dry on some newspaper. It worked well and was not too fussy.