Hi friends. One of my favorite crafts is crocheting. Little stuff mostly - no yarn - only crochet threads. Back in January of 2017, I posted about crochet motifs I was making into a shawl (actually two shawls - one white, and one multi-colored).
Neither shawl is finished, but I found out that a single motif makes a great snowflake ornament for the Christmas tree. So I've also been making a lot of those.
After crocheting the motifs, they need to be stiffened with a glue/water solution and stretched, so they look nice on the tree. I made a couple of cardboard mats for that. Several layers of corrugated cardboard taped together. Then I traced circles the size I needed, divided by eight, and poked a hole at each point so I could pin the snowflakes on it to dry. Then I wrapped the cardboard with plastic wrap, so the snowflakes won't stick to it. I'm using brass quilting pins, because they don't rust, but I wish I could find brass T-pins instead. They would be much easier to work with. I suppose I could cut off part of the pin. I may have to try that, and see how it works.
Most of the snowflakes are white or off white, but I have made some light blue ones and some yellow ones. I guess the yellow ones would be stars instead of snowflakes. I made a couple with some odd colors of crochet thread - a pink one and a dark green one. I ended up painting them with some metallic acrylic paint, but didn't take pictures of those.
I made little pockets for the ornaments, and included a little thank you note. I needed something to put them in, so I covered a cardboard box with wrapping paper, added a handle and some decorations. Today I coerced my husband to go with me to the hospital to take them to some of the deserving folks out on the front lines working with Covid-19 patients. During this year, I've barely been out of the house, so this was a new experience for me. When I went inside the hospital, they took my temperature, and then they had to figure out what to do with the ornaments or how to distribute them. I think I made 145, which is really just a drop in a bucket, compared to how many medical personnel work in even one hospital, but I hope they are an encouragement to those who receive them.
2 comments:
Goodness... I made crocheted snowflake ornaments years and years ago. I'll never forget that the neighbor used sugar water to starch her ornaments then stored them away in a closet until the following Christmas. But one day, several weeks after she'd stored the ornaments she noticed a trail of ants coming in and out of the closet where the ornaments were stored. She opened the door and voila! there were ants crawling all over and inside the box of ornaments! LOL What a nightmare that was. So from then on, she used liquid starch. I've since lost my ornament pattern. Would you mind sharing yours with me?? tehachap yahoo com Many thanks in advance. I know you from Split Coast Stamping -- you sent me a birthday card today!
Love the ornaments! My aunt made them too, or maybe it was my paternal grandmother. They're in my collection. Thanks for reminding me as I cannot put up a tree where I live.
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