Below is a "Star Stitch Logic" graphic I created for my ~new~ Q-Star Coverlet (more pattern info at right.) I start with this logic to try things like: 

1. A star stitch block with mitered corners.

2. Rows crocheted with the right side facing, and other rows with the wrong side facing, so that I can alternate attached yarn colors each row, no cutting. Works nicely with the reversible Q-stars.

3. A row of stars interrupted with other stitches of different heights. (See examples of these first three ideas in the green squares at right.)

4. Fancy shaping at the edges and internally (such as the jacket above.)

Click on the "Star Stitch Logic" image to see it enlarged in Flickr.
When I crochet a star stitch, I see it as a boxy thing that fills in a two-stitch space in the row. It's one thing that counts as two. A star st (see abbreviations at the bottom) always has two pairs of top loops, as the "Star Stitch Logic" graphic states. It's easy, though, to change how many sts of a row a star is crocheted into. 

To increase, you pull up the final loop of a star in just one new st of the row. You could also pull it up in the same st as the star you already completed. In the first case, you'd increase by 1 st; in the second case you'd increase by two sts.

A star is also pretty much as tall as it is wide. Often, we ch 3 to turn and begin a new star st row. This is a clue that a star is similar in height to a dc. 

Well, armed with those simple facts, the starry sky's the limit! Figure the average star st = 2 dc in height and width. If you wish to miter them (turn a corner), figure on putting 3 stars (counts as 6 sts—i.e., 6 dc) in the corner, and see if it looks nice. 

To make stars taller, you can do two things: pull up on the loops as you make each star, just like you do to make puff sts ("Pull up a loop to the same height as the turning ch..."). Another way I've found, thanks to the Q-Star Coverlet pattern, is to yarn over before pulling up some or all of the loops of the star. The extra yarn overs cause the star to expand.

At left is the first mitered star stitch swatch I muddled through in 2012-3. There are only 2 stars in the corner (4 "dc"), so it isn't a 90º angle.
 

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