Snowflake Monday

Good morning, and I hope your Make a Snowflake Day last week was terrific! Even if you didn't make a snowflake. Because our special day fell on a work day, I wasn't able to socialize with Sisters of the Snowflake as I had long-hoped, but we did still make a few great connections in our Facebook group, for which I am very grateful.

I hope you haven't grown weary of my temperature project yet because I do have a bit more to share. Last week's post was just so ridiculously long, I decided maybe I could/should save a few gems for another day. It will be fun doing monthly progress reports, too.

One of the side projects I'm a little excited about features the tails I cut off at the end of each motif. I've been saving my hand-dyed thread cuttings for quite a while now, quite frankly, because they are just too pretty to discard.

Kind of like my quilting scrap bins! Filled to overflowing now. Six Altoid tins full of crochet thread cuttings! I've long had a couple of ideas of things I could do with those scraps. I've been keeping the crochet temperature project clippings separate, and I'm so glad now I did because I can create things specifically related to the project. This project is giving me my first first chance to make leftover tails meaningful.

And now I have my first craft project to show what can be done with small clippings. To be quite honest, I'm making my ends a bit longer these days to provide more size to these artsy ideas! I know it means I'll be using up the thread a bit faster by doing it this way, but in the end (pun intended), don't you think it's worth it???

Then, to make yet another long Snowflake Monday blog post, I thought I'd share what I started on Make a Snowflake Day but didn't finish until a full four days later. Thanks, work!!! But that's okay. Work pays the bills.

I've been trying for years now to replace color snowflake images on my Snowcatcher Snowflake Directory with white snowflake images. Now that I'm doing more digital temperature quilt blocks using my white snowflakes on batik backgrounds, I also need more images of my snowflakes in white on different colors. It's a slow process, and I've got such a long way to go.

Last Monday I tackled another once-color-only pattern, fixing up the 12-year mistakes (which I didn't know existed) and then coming up with another pattern variation to include with the original pattern, Columbine Mine Snowflake. I LOVE adding Easter eggs (hidden pattern variations) to my snowflake patterns as I go back and redo them. I hope you love finding Easter eggs and perhaps even indulge in a crochet snowflake pattern Easter egg hunt on my website once in a while to see what's out there...

That means I'll have to come up with an Easter egg for this post at some point so today's post will include a treasure when it comes up in searches (because it includes the phrase "Easter egg"). But for now, I'm so excited to introduce a new pattern that I love so much, I've used photos of it in an AI (Artificial Intelligence) program to generate what I think are some pretty awesome images. (Sorry it doesn't incorporate hearts for tomorrow, but I do have a ton of hearty snowflake patterns already published.)

A fun trivia tidbit from my Make a Snowflake Day project... On the final round, I discovered a mistake near the beginning of the previous round. I frogged back to that point to fix the problem. In reworking that second-to-last round again, I made the same friggin' mistake again near the end of the the very same round and did not discover it until I was nearly done with the flake. It had already taken me four days to get to that point, so I decided not to frog again. I decided to try to fix it from the round above. I was missing a treble crochet stitch (and chain). So I worked a double treble stitch into the appropriate place from the final round, hoping the single crochet along that final round would camouflage my mistake. Can you see the mistake??? I wish now I'd done that the first time around instead of time-consuming frogging!!!

One more fun morsel from my Make a Snowflake Day project... I had more than a handful of tiny balls of white crochet thread in my crochet bag not quite long enough to make a small snowflake. I don't like to run out of thread while I'm designing a new flake, so I end up stashing all those little balls at the bottom of the bag, where they eventually unravel and often get tangled up, becoming a real mess. The flake pattern I reworked last week was big, so I used up all those little tiny balls. No more straggling leftovers in my crochet bag!!! (for at least a while...) My finished snowflake had at least 12 knots I had to bury (which is one of the reasons I don't like knots when I'm designing a new flake), but now that they are all woven in, you can't even tell!!! Pretty amazing, huh? Tails, tails, tails!

Last fun crumb for the day. I used to get so uptight when I'd find a strand of hair crocheted into a snowflake because they are SO hard to get out after the snowflake has been stiffened. Sadly, that isn't as much of an issue these days. As my hair loses its blonde youth, strands caught up in my crocheting don't really show up anymore!!! Yes, the new Columbine Mine Snowflake includes at least two of my silver strands. Ever heard the old wives' tale about the bond between a sweater recipient and the sweater's maker when the maker knits a strand of hair into the project? Does that mean my snowflake will be an awesome gift for someone I love??? How's that for an appropriate Valentine sentiment?

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 5 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 7 crochet hook, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line

Valentine's Eve Snowflake Instructions

Make magic ring.

Round 1: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 4 dc in ring, take loop off hook, insert hook through 2nd ch of starting ch 2 and replace loop on hook, pull loop through ch (starting popcorn stitch made), ch 15, [5 dc in ring, take loop off hook, insert hook through top loop of 1st dc and replace loop on hook, pull loop through top of 1st dc (popcorn stitch made), ch 15] 5 times, sl st top of starting popcorn st. Pull magic circle tight.

Round 2: Ch 7 (counts as 1 tr and [ch 3), 1 dc in next ch 15 petal, ch 3, 1 dc in same sp, ch 3, 1 tr in top of next pc] 6 times, omitting last tr of final repeat, sl st in 4th ch of starting ch 7.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 3: Ch 8 (counts as 1 dc and [ch 6), sk next ch 3 sp, in next ch 3 tip work (1 pc, ch 12, 1 pc), ch 6, 1 dc around post of next tr] 6 times, omitting last dc of final repeat; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 8; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finish: Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.

If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

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