I attended a friend’s baby shower in Washington DC this past weekend, and I made a solar system garland for their nursery. I used the Hedgehog Fibres sock minis that I bought on my trip to Do Ewe Knit? in New Jersey.

I really like how it turned out! I used the same Ideal Crochet Spheres pattern (it’s free on Ravelry) that I used to make the Solar System Mobile that I made for another friend’s baby shower. I made a few modifications like adding the rings on Saturn and the rays on the sun. Here are the sphere sizes I used and the modifications that I made:

• Mercury: 10 row sphere in the colorway Cereal
• Venus: 16 row sphere in the colorway Guppy
• Earth: 16 row sphere in the colorway Bubble
• Mars: 12 row sphere in the colorway Bollywood
• Jupiter: 24 row sphere in the colorway Raku
• Saturn: 22 row sphere in the colorway Dijon with the rings in Cereal
  • Work row 12 in the back loops only
  • After finishing, working in the unworked front loops of row 11…
    – row 1: (sc 10, 2 sc in next sc) 4 times (48 stitches)
    – row 2: (sc 3, 2 sc in next sc) 12 times (60 stitches)
    – row 3: (sc 4, 2 sc in next sc) 12 times (72 stitches)
    – row 4: (sc 5, 2 sc in next sc) 12 times (84 stitches)
    – row 5: sc in each sc around (84 stitches)
• Uranus: 18 row sphere in the colorway Goblin
• Neptune: 18 row sphere in the colorway Kimono
• Sun: 30 row sphere in the colorway Pollen
  • After row 15…- row 1: in front loops only, (sl st, sk 2 sc, dc 5 in next sc, sk 2 sc) around
    – row 2: (sc in dc, sc in dc, (2 sc, ch 1, 2 sc) in next dc, sc in dc, sc in dc, sk sl st)
  • Continue with row 16 in the unworked back loops of row 15
  • Continue with sphere as written

For making the garland, I used Brooklyn Tweed Peerie in the colorway kettle because it was the only fingering weight solid black yarn that I could find at Purl Soho when I was visited. I braided it with a few strands of the colored yarn to make the garland, and then I threaded a smaller braid through each planet to make a loop that I attached to the garland, leaving a tassel hanging off of the bottom of each planet. I love the handmade way the tassels make the garland look!

I should really do more projects like this, because they’re quick and very rewarding. I’m thinking of making some birds of happiness or little hearts and turning them into a garland for myself. I’m also excited to add the yarn from this project into my granny stripe blanket!