Winter Solstice, Mistletoe & the Kissing Hat....

Happy Winter Solstice!  

As if you couldn't tell, today is the shortest day and longest night of the year.  It's quite a dusky, magical, eerie sort of day and one I've decided to spend quietly after almost over-doing-it Christmas shopping yesterday (well, I say quietly, which usually translates into making something...)

I wasn't sure if I would get the time to do another festive make before the 25th and even if I did, what I would do it about, but in the end it was the Solstice that inspired me.  Whilst I'm not about to go running off to dance around Stonehenge (even though it's not too far from here) I have taken a little piece of the druid related folklore about Mistletoe - which is also another iconic symbol of Christmas.

Mistletoe is a parasite growing at the tops of 'host' trees which it uses to sustain it. It manages to survive and spread because birds eat the berries then 'expel' the seeds naturally which then lands on the branches of trees and begin to grow. It has been used medicinally in various guises and was called 'Allheal' by the Celts...but don't be fooled as those sweet little white berries can be quite toxic to us humans.

But back to the Druids.  They considered Mistletoe to be a sacred plant, largely because it appeared to grow 'up in the air' and which they therefore associated with the sun. Of course the Druids were great sun worshippers and used to cut swathes of it around the time of the Winter Solstice. 

In Medieval times it was also used for both medicinal and magical purposes and it was hung it up in bunches all over the place as 'protection' from evil.  It was believed to be some kind of love protection talisman and one of our oldest traditions, that of kissing-under-the-mistletoe,  is likely to have stemmed from that.  It can actually be quite hard to come by this time of year, or at best quite pricey so I thought I'd have a go at making some... somehow... and crochet was the thing that sprung to mind which, with a few additional beady embellishments went towards a sweet little sprig to wear on a jumper or hat.




So, how was it made you wonder... well, just follow the step-by-steps here (there are a lot of pictures for this one but it should make explaining it easier!)

First of all you will need some green yarn, a 3.omm crochet hook and scissors...

Begin by making a row of 12 chain stitches..

Then make a dc in the 2nd ch from the hook, followed by 1htr, 1tr and 1 dtr...

Make 1tr stitch in each ch until the last 3 ch....

Then 1htr in next 2 ch, ending with 1dc....

Next, catch a thread from the other side of the chain row so you have 2 loops on the hook...

Pull the thread through both to give a single loop. That completes the first leaf.

Now make another row of 12 ch stitches 

Repeat all the steps necessary to make a second leaf...

Once again, catch a thread from the other side of the chain row to make 2 loops...

.... and pull the thread through to leave you with one loop.

From this point on, I basically made a thick row of chain by catching the thread through the previous stitch and making a dc on top (repeatedly)....

Work it until long enough to turn back onto itself in a loop...

Push the crochet hook through the other side and pull the thread through as shown here... 

Then make a row of 12 chain ready for your next leaf....

When you've made a new pair of leaves, use ss to work your thread down the 'stem' and make another pair...

Then crochet back up and around the top of your stem to both close the 'loop' and thicken it...

Fasten off and use the thread end to sew the thick top of the stem into a more stem-like shape...

You should now have a little cluster of leaves like this...

I used some white glass pearls for my 'berries' but any small white beads of around 8mm will do...

I also decided to make my beads into small charms which I could attach to the leaf cluster and which would give it a bit of weight...

Finally it just needed a little bit of scarlet ribbon tied into a bow...

Hope you got all that?  It's really not that complicated but I just wanted to make sure you had enough pictures to follow it through! Don't over-worry about the organic nature of the stems - just work up and down them until you feel it works for you.

I'm quite pleased with how this little project turned out and, with it clipped to my woolly hat (an ordinary safety pin works well) and it means I can go off gathering my kisses all over the festive season now - what fun!

Happy Making xx