Star Stitch
rows of small six-loop stars, each closed with a central eye, for a dense, textured, reversible fabric
Star stitch, also sold as daisy stitch or marguerite stitch, builds a fabric out of little stars, each made by drawing several loops up onto the hook and closing them together. For a common version you pull up loops through the next few stitches and chains so that six loops sit on the hook, then yarn over and draw through all six at once to gather them into a star, and a chain one afterwards makes the small central eye. The stars of the next row are worked into the eyes and edges of the row below so they interlock, giving a thick, slightly squashy, and reversible fabric with an even scattering of eyelets. It is a favourite for baby blankets and cowls because it looks intricate but is really just a repeated gather-and-close, and it lies flat without curling. The main thing to watch is keeping all the drawn-up loops the same height, since an uneven loop throws the star off. It uses more yarn than plain double crochet for the same area because of the dense gathering.