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| Inspiration and Instructions |
I'm making snowflakes. Can you tell? Do you love snowflake ornaments like I do? One year I made dozens, and gave them as gifts, and (of course) kept some too. Now, it's time to do it again.
I have some growing-up young people around, niece, friend's kids, my own kid, and I think about them getting out on their own and how long it took me to amass my favorite Christmas decorations, and how much I've enjoyed making many of them. So, I put two and two together, and thought, what a great gift! Handmade Christmas decorations to get them started when they may not have too much money to spend on them, but still like to be festive. I got a plastic shoebox for each kid, and I'm on my way to adding decorations to each.
One of the easiest - and quickest - are crocheted snowflakes. The last time I made snowflakes, I didn't have this booklet, so I thought it would be a fun place to start. My goal (for this year) is to crochet 6 of each style. I just started the 5th style last night.
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| Snowflake #5 |
They are quick to do, and make a great take-along project. Since they are all 6-pointed snowflakes, they will be pretty easy to get starched and stretched, although I will have to set up a starching board, and I haven't yet, so none of these are truly finished.
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| Snowflake #4 |
I have a hard time saying which is my favorite snowflake as I think they are all pretty, and I like that there is a wide variety so that I can do a no-two-snowflakes-are-the-same package for each giftee. Cool, right?
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| Snowflake #3 |
When I do starch them, I will - as I did before - use a 1-1 sugar water solution to wet them through, then pin them out on a board. I have had no problem with the snowflakes I made before becoming limp, and it has been... 20 years or so since I made them (that long?!?!?). It also has the added benefit of being non-toxic for small children and pets.
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| Snowflake #2 |
I found it very helpful last time to make a pattern to pin the snowflakes on. A line for each point helped them be symetric. I also found adding a t-pin, which is a little bigger around, on one of the points a good way to make a hanger point.
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| Snowflake #1 |
For the hangers, I used a length of a fairly fine fishing line. If you make a large enough loop to go over a branch, then you don't need a hook as well, and it can pretty much disappear once you hang the snowflakes, Then they really look like they are just falling into the tree. Pretty!
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| A snowflake in action |
