Written by guest writer Gekkou!
Hello! My name is Gekkou and I’m an eclectic pagan with largely Wiccan leanings. I’m also a fiber artist, and earlier this year I was asked to make a decorative doily-type-thing for an altar. I’m going to talk about the process of making it and my thoughts as I went along.
It’s crocheted using mostly cotton crochet thread that I was given as part of a de-stash (for the non-fiber-obsessed: de-stashing is getting rid of some or all of your fiber ‘stash’), along with some random soft white stuff that came in an anonymous ball and that I suspect is high-end wool. Mostly my choice of supplies was driven by thrift – what can I make with what I have on hand? If I had decided to purchase supplies, I likely would have gone with more vibrant, jewel-tone colors, but it was interesting to see how this turned out.
For my theme, I decided to go with the five elements typical in Wicca and elsewhere – Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Spirit. These also have traditionally-associated colors, and I matched these as closely as I could to what was available – yellow Air, red Fire, light blue Water, grass green Earth, and white Spirit. I assigned crochet thread to the first four, and the soft white possibly-wool to Spirit, thinking of the light, intangible aspect of this element.
The center star was the only part of this design that I used a pattern for, and it can be found on Raverly (link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/holey-star). I didn’t follow it exactly, but did something very similar. In my coven’s tradition we assign particular elements to the points of the pentacle, and I arranged them accordingly here. I don’t often work with crochet thread, and it was challenging to work with such a small slippery piece initially. Patience required!
I knew that I wanted to surround the pentacle with a pentagon. In order to do so, I’d need to increase only at the points of the star, while also ensuring that I had the right amount of stitches along the sides. Too few and it would turn into a bowl; too many and it would ruffle. This involved a lot of trial and error and ripping back to start over, especially in the inner rounds.
I used the tan crochet thread as a sort of boundary to delineate the sections. Once I’d framed the pentacle, I had to decide on the order of the colors. Eventually I settled on an order that seemed to reflect the physical world: first there is earth, with water upon it, then warmth (fire) that you feel in the air. You might also switch the order to have fire in the center, representing the magma beneath the earth.
As I worked with the colors, I found myself applying additional meaning to them. The bright green was similar to the new leaves as we moved towards spring. The paleness of the blue put me in mind of the icy chill of the waters in the PNW where I live, and the frost that still occasionally covered the ground in the February mornings.
Once I figured out the amount of stitches that I needed for the first round of the pentagon, applying the increases at the corners became easier. The rounds were worked in double crochet, and to accentuate the corners I did one triple crochet around the front of the post (link: http://www.redheart.com/how-to/articles/ultimate-guide-crochet-post-stitches). This created a raised line at each corner, leading to the center. Everything leads to the center…
Then I faced my next (self-imposed) challenge: I didn’t want the finished piece to be pentagonal, just the center. So I had to figure out a way to round out the shape somehow. Another border of tan comprised of single crochet over chains and double crochet, and I went on to Spirit.
It was interesting transitioning from the slippery crochet thread to the more grippy possibly-wool, and that outside edge also took a lot of ripping back and re-doing to figure out (thankfully the yarn was forgiving). I wanted it nice and thick, like an atmosphere around a planet, and I made it in four rows: small single crochet, stout half-double crochet, taller double crochet, and even taller triple crochet. This made the inside row dense, and the outside row lighter – although this was Spirit, I was still thinking of the atmosphere and how the oxygen thins out the higher you get. Given the linguistic similarities between spirit and breath (inspire, etc.) it wasn’t too much of a stretch.
When I finished working up the piece, it was time to block it. Blocking is, very simply, the process of wetting fibers and arranging and securing the project so that when it dries it stays the way you want it to (ahaha. ideally). I was a bit worried as I went into it, as even with all the ripping and re-doing it was still rippling and curling around itself, as pieces like this are wont to do. And there’s a saying…if you’re hoping you can fix it with blocking, you probably can’t. However, the fiber gods smiled upon me, and when I unpinned it from my foam blocking piece it stayed flat! Some of the white edging has a bit of a ruffle, but it’s easily smoothed over.
I hope you enjoyed this foray into my creative process, and maybe are inspired to create something of your own. There’s something special about handmade altar pieces, regardless of skill level – something about the amount of yourself involved in the item’s becoming, perhaps. It’s called Craft for a reason…
Happy Crafting!
DIY Pagan 