Christmas in July day 14

Ornaments.  This covers so many things  I know I am covering this on 2 days.

Today's ornaments will be the smaller things you hang on your trees or use as gift tags.  There are literally thousands upon thousands of patterns out there.  Let your imagination soar.  These are just a few to get you started.

There are snowflakes, do them in thread for a delicate look, do them in yarn and have a more robust look.  See these posts for more ideas with these http://wendyteaches-mrsscubafish.blogspot.com/2012/07/more-about-snowflakes.html and http://wendyteaches-mrsscubafish.blogspot.com/2012/07/idea-for-christmas-crocheting.html 

There are full on ornaments like we all think of.as well as more novel approaches to ornaments and for something different you can use something like these.  You can do a simple ball but change it up with novelty yarns.

And finally a popcorn garland that I can no longer find on the internet where I initially found it.

I use Red Heart Super Saver in aran because to me that looks like my popcorn.  You can add red beads if you want the popcorn and cranberry look or leave it plain.  I did mine plain.

Popcorn Garland

Red Heart Super Savor, 8 oz in color Aran
Size I hook

Ch 5, work 5 dc in 5th ch from hook.  Remove hook from last loop, insert in top of ch 3 and then back into the loop and pull through.  (popcorn made)

* Ch 8, (5 dc in 5th ch from hook, remove hook from last loop, insert in top of ch 3 and then back into the loop and pull through).

Rep from * until your garland is as long as you want.  Gauge for this project doesn't matter.  If you use the whole skein for this you will have around 75 ft of garland.  My knitting guild made these for a bazaar one year and we measured.  If you add the red beads, put them in the second chain of the 3 chains between the popcorns.

This is fast and easy (unless you do the whole skein) and can be kept from year to year unlike the edible version.  It also doesn't draw bugs or mice.

More about snowflakes

In general, when I was on the hunt for snowflake patterns, I had a hard time for one reason.  Every day I would set a goal of 1 hour of hunting and copy and paste patterns into a Word document to spell check and print.  I kept them all.  They didn't survive in digital form after a computer crash.  But more importantly, I didn't keep track of my sources so I would not keep repeating.  Many didn't have pictures with the instructions that would copy and paste.  So I could not even check that way.  I started keeping that information very late in the game after I started crocheting.  Some of my sources are easy to find and are constantly being updated.  Others have been taken down for one reason or another.  Here are links to some I have used.

http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/snowflakes.php

http://fabact.co/christmas/snowflakes/crochetsnowflakes.html

http://crochetcollection.blogspot.com/2008/02/free-crochet-snowflakes.html  This might be a new one given the 2008 date but the sites it references are for the most part ones I used, I think.

http://crochet.about.com/od/motifs/tp/Crochet_Snowflake_Patterns.htm


Two books I would not want to be without are 99 Snowflakes (Leisure Arts #3013) and 

Crochet 101 Snowflakes (American School of Needlework No. 1217) by Delsie Rhoades and Kathy Wesley (1995)

One of the more interesting things I learned about snowflakes is that when they form as water freezes, they are 6 sided figures.  The arms may break or not fully form but they are 6 sided all the same.  4, 5, 7, 8 sided figures are interesting and I did find some labeled as snowflakes.  I make quite a few too.  They are really neat but if you are a purist, you might want to skip them.  A couple I wish I had.  In particular is one that had 4 arms radiating from the center and the pattern called for each arm to be crocheted and break the thread and start anew in the next spot indicated in the pattern.  All fine and well but there must have been a mistake in the pattern or my reading of the pattern.  I had room for 4 1/2 arms and if I took them out and made them fit the space I had, it looked very wrong.  I didn't keep that flake.

Along the way, I learned I liked the flake patterns that were mostly chains for working but more solid looking for aesthetics.  Good old white school glue, waxed paper, foam core board and rust proof pins are essential for stiffening the flakes, if you like them like that.  More glue than water is essential to keeping mostly chained flakes looking their best (too much water in the mix and the droop sadly before the Christmas season is over).  There are groups for people who do nothing but crochet snowflakes.  Snowflakes can be joined together to form lacy place mats and tablecloths.  Smaller flakes make nice adornments for coats and fabric purses or headbands for girls.

Enjoy the links.  There are plenty out there.  There are even a few beading sites that have beaded snowflakes that are pretty neat.  Done in tiny size 10 or 11 seed beads in either white or silver or clear (or combination of those) they make nice earrings or a pendant for a chain.  You can also add beads to your flakes.  Pre-string or grab as you go and put them in where ever you think is a good spot.    I did a couple in baby blue beads and red beads.  After all these years, I still don't know if I like them.

Lastly, throw in a few icicles to keep things interesting.  There are a few patterns for them as well.  Enjoy!

An idea for Christmas Crocheting

This idea came to me a few years ago.  I decided that our new house, which has a lot (every room at that point) of paneling, would look ever so nice with Christmas tree type garland around each doorway in the kitchen (2 doorways), living room (1 doorway) and hall hall (3 bedrooms, a bathroom, a closet and the double wide opening between the living room and kitchen/dining area) and the plain non-branching garland around the ceilings of the hall, living room and kitchen/dining area..  All this was put up using cup hooks that never left the walls unless the walls were removed.  Some have been since that time.  It did look nice.  It also looked rather dark with all that wood, dark green garland and doors closed to keep heat where we wanted it and pets out of the rooms.  To remedy this I decided to add white snow flakes to each garland around each doorway and around the ceilings.

Each branched garland was 9 feet long and I had the bright idea to put a flake every foot on each one (to help brighten the dark areas).  Each garland around the ceilings was 50 ft each.  I lost count of how many feet of this I put up each year.  Needless to say, I started crocheting snowflakes.  I gave myself a year to make them all.  I was hoping to have around 300 I think at one point.  I really have no idea how many ever did get made.  It was a bunch.

I collected patterns from the internet the summer of 2005.  I bought snowflake crochet pattern books when I found them.  I wanted one of each pattern.  After all, snowflakes in nature are all different, so mine had to be too.  There are very large 12 inch flakes on down to 1 inch flakes.  Some are beaded.  Most are not.  Most flakes I tried to keep in the 3 inch - 5 inch diameter range.  I still have the printouts in a 3 inch binder and the books.  I got a third of the way through them.  Some day I will go back to them.

The flakes when done look absolutely terrible until blocked and starched.  The terribleness could have something to do with me crunching them up to stuff into the cardboard tube in the center of the white mercerized cotton thread.  To get them in the shape I wanted, I took a piece of foam core board and made 6 pointed shapes on them 6 inches long.  I covered this in waxed paper.  Now I could soak my flakes in glue and pin them out.  Each flake to a shape with really small ones in the spaces in between.  I have tried differing strengths of glue to water ratios, from 1/2 and 1/2 to full glue (white school glue).  The half and half gives a nice starched appearance but doesn't really hold up.  Points started drooping.  The full glue, depending on the brand, would give a look of plastic to the flakes, but they held their shape.

If I find the pictures again, I will post them.  A computer malfunction wiped out a lot of my pictures, I think I had some of these printed off.  However, every year since I started this, the flakes and garlands go up first thing.  The cup hooks remain in most places year round and have tarnished so that they blend in with the darker wood paneling.  In places where walls have been replaced, we opted for lighter and brighter wall treatments and sadly the flakes don't show up on these walls.

The snowflakes would also make nice package ties, ornaments for the tree or jewelry if you use the very small ones.  Some people I have heard about leave the flakes in the unstiffened state and lay them on the branches.  You could even use them to embellish some everyday wardrobe items with either a few stitches on the points to hold them on or use some of the tacky quilting spray to hold them on for just a night.

Christmas in July

I'm planning to do a link a day to something I think might be fun to knit or crochet for a Christmas present or two.  The links will mostly be items that are already out there but might have been overlooked.

I will also be figuring out what I'm doing for Christmas gifts this year and posting pictures of finished presents.  Things that will need to be done before all this knitting and crocheting?  Do I have the correct needles, hooks, knook, cro-hook for anticipated project?  Do I have enough yarn in the desired fiber and color?  If not, can I get more?  Will I need a complementary color?

Can I think of ways to keep presents from becoming covered in dog/cat fur?  What are the best ways to de-fur presents?  Will I have the stamina to complete big things in the dog days of August?

Let me know your thoughts on what you are planning?  Do you have ways to keep your projects free from "contaminants"?  For those allergic to animal dander, this could be of real interest.