A Star Stitch For Every Purpose is the name of a sold out three-hour crochet class that I taught in July, 2014 at the 20th anniversary annual conference for the national crochet guild (CGOA). I researched over 200 sources from the 1840’s to the present. Class materials included a spiral-bound booklet of star stitches and a step by step how-to section.

Star Stitch: Visit These First

• My Star Stitch Crochet Board in Pinterest. It was specially promoted by Pinterest admins earlier this year: “We think your board is amazing, and it really demonstrates what Pinterest is all about!”
• My DesigningVashti Shop for downloadable crochet patterns, and for the Lotus yarn I used in several class swatches. Try this self-updating star stitch pattern search tag I created.
• The 2018 Starwirbel Class Resources page!

Star Stitch History

The earliest example of star stitches I’ve found so far is in an 1881 issue of a Norwegian magazine. It’s remarkable to me how seldom star stitches have appeared in crochet books since 1881.  

When star stitches do appear in a book or online, they can vary in ways both subtle and dramatic. It’s mainly because it’s a compound stitch. It multiplies the opportunities to vary each step along the way.

This is true not only when completing each star, but also when crocheting the next row into it, and what stitches are in that next row. For example, you can crochet stars into stars – with turning or without. You can alternate a row of stars with a row of, say, single crochet stitches. These simple choices change the look of the stitch, and the experience of crocheting them.

Key historical sources

• 1881: Nordisk Mønster-Tidende.
• 1886: Knitting and Crochet.
• 1891: The Art of Crocheting, by Butterick.
• 1891: Home Work, by A. M. (Toronto).
• Late 1800’s: Weldons Practical Crochet, First Series (London).
• 1910: Fleisher’s Book #8.

More Resources

• I’ve been unable to locate a print copy of two Japanese “Star Crochet” books mentioned in class, but here is the ISBN for one of the volumes: 978-4-579-11323-1.
• Star Stitch projects and design prototypes as I add them to Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/vashtirama .
• For more star stitches as I create them, bookmark this Star Stitches photo album in Flickr.