28 March 2024

Holy Thursday

26 March 2024

A New Birthday Challenge

I wish I'd been taking photos all along. But I didn't think of it until November.

I'm teaching the 6- and 7-year-olds every other Sunday, and they are such a perfect age! They absolutely love when I crochet little things to help them remember something I've taught.

As their birthdays approach, I ask them what their favorite thing is, and then I do my best to crochet their wish to embellish a simple homemade birthday card. I adhere my crochet to the card with a glue stick so the kids can easily remove it and have Mom help them string it for hanging or just to keep in their pockets.

Last year, I crocheted flowers, hearts, bats (yes, bats!), a flamingo, autumn leaves, butterflies and a rainbow before I began taking photos of the finished cards. Of course, I also found perfect ways to fit snowflakes into three lessons last year, so each student received tiny crocheted snowflakes three different Sundays. One set glowed in the dark, you know, to represent the light of Christ. :)

Now they're all getting accustomed to me crocheting gifts for them. Recently, one of the kiddos brought a miniature set of scriptures into class. They all went nuts over the little-hand-sized book. I told them I would see if I could find some so they can each have one. I looked everywhere, finding only very expensive used copies on eBay.

Last week, miniature scriptures would have fit perfectly into the lesson ("feast upon the word"). I decided to buy a pdf of candy bar wrappers from Etsy to cover some candy bars to help explain the difference between reading scriptures and feasting upon scriptures. (I plan to share New Testament and Old Testament candy bars, too, but I'm stretching the lesson out over three weeks so I can help them understand the religious reason we celebrate Easter.) I told the class about my unsuccessful search, then presented them with even smaller "scriptures" they really could feast upon. (And boy, did they!!!)

The candy bars were a real hit. The parents loved them, too. The highlight of my day, however, was when one little girl told me I could just crochet scriptures for them. Perhaps book covers... Ha ha ha!

25 March 2024

Snowflake Monday

Today's snowflake bears the name of another snowplow. A snowplow is something I wish we needed today... alas, we aren't expecting much accumulation from Winter Storm Ronnie. Any moisture is good, though.

A fun bit of trivia regarding today's snowflake. The prototype has a pretty significant booboo. Can you see it??? I didn't see it until I was pinning it. It was already saturated with glue. I could have fixed it if I had noticed it sooner. I was tempted to name the flake Blunder or Bungle, but these days, I want my snowflakes to have a degree of dignity. Even a flawed flake still has beauty, right?

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: 5.5 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

Blizzo Snowflake Instructions

SPECIAL STITCHES: Popcorn Stitch (pc) Work 5 dc in designated st, take loop off hook, insert hook through top loop of 1st dc and replace loop on hook, pull loop through top of 1st dc. Make magic ring. NOTE: The end of the 1st Round includes what might seem like pretty wacky instructions; I'm attempting to prevent binding off and joining again as well as reduce the number of thread ends to be woven in at the end. If you can't make sense of what I'm trying to describe, just finish the final picot and ch 2 the same as the previous 11, then join atop any ch 2 tip to begin Round 2.

Round 1: Pc in ring, [[ch 5, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook (dc picot made)] 2 times, ch 2, pc in ring] 5 times; ch 5, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook, ch 1, yo 5 times, draw up loop through top of starting pc, yo and draw through 2 loops on hook 4 times (trtr made, with 3 loops remaining on hook, draw up loop through 3rd trtr segment, yo and draw up loop through 2nd trtr segment, [yo and draw through 2 loops on hook] to form 6th spoke of Round (as shown below). Don't pull magic circle too tight.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.


faux trtr made


draw up loop through 3rd segment


yo and draw up loop through 2nd segment


yo and draw through 2 loops on hook 5 times


1 dc in bottom of each dc picot

Round 2: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 2 dc in same spoke tip, [ch 5, 1 dc in base of next dc picot, sk next 4 ch, 1 dc in base of next dc picot (as shown above), ch 5, in next spoke tip work (3 dc, ch 5, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook, ch 18, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook, ch 2, 3 dc] 6 times, omitting last 3 dc of final repeat; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 2; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finish: I've been stiffening my flakes with undiluted, full-strength water soluble school glue for quite a while now, and I've been squishing the glue onto and throughout each flake with my fingers (yucky mess!!!) instead of gingerly painting the flakes with glue. Yes, it's a mess. But it's faster. And stiffer.

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.

21 March 2024

Sheer Luck

I didn't plan it this way, but spring colors kicked in at the beginning of a new C2C (corner to corner) row. Kind of excited to see how it will look in a couple of weeks!

Related Posts with Thumbnails