Christmas is coming!

Ok, I've been playing with crochet baubles this week, cute cuddly decorations that can be used to embellish gifts, home made stockings or even just hang about the house or on the tree. 

 

I started with a 'magic circle', 20 hdc and pull tight. You could do the usual chain and do the hdc around that, but you can pull the circle tight, which I find is great for making stuffed items. For the first round I just hdc all the way round, 2nd round: one hdc in each of the first five, hdc twice in sixth, hdc one in the next five, two hdc in the next one and so on to the end. Repeated this for each of the following rows till there was 40 sts. Then did 4 rounds of 40 hdc. I reduced in a similar way for the next 3 rounds or so till I got back down to 20 st. (Hdc 5, decrease in next 2 sts, 5 hdc...) then one round of 20 then final round reduced in first 3 sts, next 3 sts etc till the end. Leaves a little hole, make sure right side is facing, if not, turn inside out and stuff. 

You can decorate anyway you like really. I did simple single crochet stripes and tried to make them look like regular plastic ones by putting a white top and loop on the top, just two rows of sc and a chain of 12 for the loop. This closes the top and just makes them look a bit more authentic.