Sea Shell Motifs/Garland #1

What is summer without the beach or ocean? I was able to visit the beach in Southern California this month. The sun, sand and shells inspired me to make this sea shell garland that I am sharing with you. This week I will be posting the patterns for a conch shell and a starfish and next week I will post the patterns for a sand dollar and a fan shell. I will be putting these together on a garland to decorate the house. You can use these motifs to decorate various things for that summer feeling.

Conch Shell

Start with a magic circle, 5 sc, 5 hdc, 2 dc in the circle

Working in the back loops of the beginning sc and the rest of the stitches, 2 dc in the next 5 sts.

It is starting to take shape after adding the dc stitches 

Still working in the back loops, 2 tr in the next 8 st. If you are changing color for the edging you will end off at this point and join your new yarn in the same place. If the shell is going to be all one color ch 1 and work a reverse sc (crab stitch) around the edges. The directions for the reverse dc can be found here

Make sure to work around the shell edges and in the front loops of the stitch that were worked in the back loops only, end off, weave in ends.

Finished! You have a shell! The pattern can be found here

Star Fish

The star fish begins with a magic circle and 2 rounds of sc stitches

 Chain 8 to make the first leg of the star fish

Work a ss, 2 sc, 2 hdc, and 1 dc in the chains of the leg

Join the leg to the base

You can finish your star fish here which gives it a natural look and allows the legs to curve

Or you can add a row of ss around the star fish to give it a more finished look. You can access the pattern here

They even look good in green!

Hope you enjoy my little piece of summer!
Happy Crocheting!