Make Some Crochet 'Fairy Lights' - Recipe/Pattern

Helllloooo!  

It's been such a long time since I've posted on here, it really is time to dust off my blog and get back into it!! 

I can't believe over a year has past since my last post.  What a crazy 12 months it has been with bushfires and a pandemic and lockdowns and having to close the shop and working online only and then being able to reopen again, such a rollercoaster of a year! 

I know a lot of other countries are still in lockdowns and suffering big time with Covid,  I hope everyone is able to stay safe and well and find ways to stay busy and happy even through the lockdowns, sending positivity and strength to you all!  

Life has returned to a near normal state here, our hard lockdowns over winter seems to have done the trick and things are starting to feel a little freer, fingers crossed we can keep it under control!

Anyway, it is nearly Christmas and I've been feeling quite festive recently and making some crochet 'fairy lights' with my little crochet bead recipe.  I call this a recipe instead of a pattern because you really can play around with the number of stitches to make them longer or rounder depending on the shape you want.  

For the 'fairy lights' I wanted a bigger bead than the ones I make for my necklaces, 

so I use 8ply wool and a 4mm hook to get bead that is big enough to be seen on the Christmas tree.  

(For necklace sized beads use 4ply yarn and a 2mm hook.)

These are very simple to make and are great for using up precious scraps of hand dyed speckled yarn.  You can use any yarns for this I think it would be cute to use some fluffy yarns to create little fuzzy beads, or you can use plain colours or whatever you like really, if you can crochet with it you can use it!!

 Crochet Bead Recipe - Basic Bead

(I am using English terminology in the pattern. )

Rounds are made in a spiral, so no joining at the end of each round

In a magic loop, make 4dc, pull magic loop tight. 

OR  Ch 2, 4dc in the 1st chain.

Round 2 :  2dc in each stitch  ( 8 stitches in total)

Round 3: 1 dc in each stitch (8 stitches)

Continue making 1dc in each stitch, spiralling around until your bead is as long as you want.  

At this point I like to stuff the tail inside the bead, or you could stuff it with scrap wool threads

Last round: Using the invisible decrease method, dc2 together x 4 to leave you with 4 stitches.  

Bind off, and leave a tail long enough to thread onto a needle and weave through the bead to hide.

Variations: To make a fatter bead, start with 5dc in the magic ring and in Round 2 make 2dc in each stitch for 10 stitches in total. Continue as for the Basic Bead. 

Double Crochet Invisible Decrease :  insert hook into front loop of 1st stitch,  insert hook in front loop of 2nd stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through  2 loops on hook.

 

Making a necklace or string of Fairy Lights or a garland of beads:  Once you have a collection of beads you can make them into a necklace or string of fairy lights for decorations.  You can arrange them in many ways, spaced out individually, clustered in groups, colour themed, or whatever else you can think of! 

I like to join my joining thread for the beads to a bead then crochet a chain and then use a few double crochets to join a bead where I want it, then make more chains and add more beads, and so on till I have my necklace/string of beads as long as I want it, at this point it is really a garland or string of little beads ready to go on the Christmas tree or across a window or mantle piece.   To make it into a loop for a necklace I then I join my chain to the first bead and bind off. 

I hope you have a bit of fun with these little things, they are whimsical and always brig a smile to my face, hopefully they will to you too!  

Talk soon!   I have so much I'd like to share on here, I had forgotten how nice it is to create a record of things I'm making  and other stuff, maybe I can show the gorgeous yarns that come into the shop and share patterns and recipes and gardening things too, all the things I'm interested in!

(I promise it won't be another year till I post again! ;)