Last Christmas I showed you these crochet baubles I bought in Paperchase.

And told you that I would like to make some myself for the next year.

Well! that time has come but with wanting to finish two blankets and some Christmas gifts to make as well I have not progressed as much as I would have hoped. However it still seems appropriate to share with you what I have managed to do, with a bit of a tutorial in case you are inspired to make some yourselves.

I decided to start by using the balls I had as inspiration for working up a pattern. I also persuaded my daughter to give me one of the plastic balls that were lying around the house that had come out of a small home ball pit.

The first pattern I used (copy included at end) gave me this:-

I used #10 crochet cotton and a 2mm hook as the shop balls seemed to have been made loosely and this gave me something that fitted nicely over my ball. (The ball was about 70mm in diameter – a little smaller than the ones I had bought but I actually like them better that way.)

I bought some School PVA glue. (This was cheaper than the ‘Craft’ glue and was washable so I thought it would mix better with water – I have never used it before; maybe some of you know more about using it). I mixed one teaspoon of glue with 1 teaspoon of water in an egg cup and thoroughly soaked the crochet in the glue water mixture.

I covered the ball in vaseline (petroleum jelly) to stop the crochet sticking to it. (More on this later).

Apologies for the mess in the background. 🙂

I stretched the crochet hemispere over the ball

and put it in the airing cupboard to dry.

Here is a ‘before and after’ picture.

I then made a second hemisphere and did the same.

However I began to realise that the vaseline, or the moisture, had softened the ball and it was getting harder to get the dents out of it so I decided that maybe it would be better to cover it with a piece of cling film: not quite as smooth but good enough.

Looking closely at the balls I had bought I decided that the two halves had been stuck together with polystyrene glue so that is what I did and got this:-

I also worked up a different pattern which was less lacey based on another of the balls but this was less satisfactory (though not entirely unusable) so I won’t bother to share this pattern with you.

This made the following

I don’t know if you can see but they are less naturally rounded than the first and, though it is hard to see in a photo, I also made a mistake and on one of the rows: I used trebles (US dcs) for one and double trebles (US trs) for the other.

However they did dry fairly rounded when stretched over the ball.

This second time I had intended to make both halves first and stretch them over the ball at the same time to make the two edges more easily match up but another shortcoming of this pattern was that they did not quite meet so in fact the ball is not truly spherical and the one half fits inside the other to a certain extent because of my mistake in the pattern. (I forgot to write it out as I went 🙂 )

I think though that hung on a Christmas tree it is still usable. I have yet to add a loop to hang them by and it would probably have been easier to do this before I stuck the two halves together.

Here they are together.

And here is the pattern I used for the first, lacey ball.

Christmas Bauble pattern

My recommendation would be to use a polystyrene ball that can be found in a craft shop and cover with cling film though I have yet to do it this way.

Using the cotton and hook size given below the ball should be about 70mm in diameter.

I used Anchor Aida #10 crochet cotton and a 2mm hook.

UK version

Starting with a magic loop or other preferred method.

Row1: 6ch, then working into the centre of the loop (tr, 3ch) five times and s.s. into 3rd ch at start..

Row 2: S.s. left till you get into loop, 6ch, tr into same loop, 3ch then (tr, 3ch) twice into each of next five loops, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 3: 3ch, [(2ch, dc, 2ch, ) into loop tr into tr] eleven times, then (2ch, dc, 2ch) into last loop, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 4: 7ch, (tr into tr, 4ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 5: 3ch, [(3ch, dc, 3ch, ) into loop tr into tr] eleven times, then (3ch, dc, 3ch) into last loop, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 6: 8ch, (tr into tr, 5ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 7: As Row 5.

Row 8: 9ch, (tr into tr, 6ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 9: As Row 5.

Row 10: 9ch, (tr into tr, 6ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start. Or else instead of the tr, use a dc or s.s. – whatever makes the shape cover half the ball.

US version

Starting with a magic loop or other preferred method.

Row1: 6ch, then working into loop (dc, 3ch) five times and s.s. into 3rd ch at start..

Row 2: S.s. left till you get into loop 6ch, dc into same loop, 3ch then (dc, 3ch) twice into each of next five loops, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 3: 3ch, [(2ch, sc, 2ch, ) into loop dc into dc] eleven times, then (2ch, sc, 2ch) into last loop, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 4: 7ch, (dc into dc, 4ch) five times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 5: 3ch, [(3ch, sc, 3ch, ) into loop dc into dc] eleven times, then (3ch, sc, 3ch) into last loop, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 6: 8ch, (dc into dc, 5ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 7: As Row 5.

Row 8: 9ch, (dc into dc, 6ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start.

Row 9: As Row 5.

Row 10: 9ch, (dc into dc, 6ch) eleven times, s.s. into 3rd ch at start. Or else instead of the dc, use an sc or s.s. – whatever makes the shape cover half the ball.

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I am hoping in time to try out other patterns although I must say that I particularly like this one. I would also like to make the balls in a variety of colours. I may share these with you if and when I complete them.