Crocheted Snowflake Ornaments

Need a quick and elegant last-minute project for the holidays?  How about making some crocheted snowflake ornaments?  All you need are basic crochet skills, a few simple supplies, and you can make a couple of these in an hour.

Some of the patterns I used for these snowflakes are from the book Beyond the Square:  Crochet Motifs.  The designs I chose can be found in the hexagon section of the book.  I also tried a couple of the free snowflake design patterns on the Lion brand web site.

For the snowflakes shown here, I used "Vanna's Glamour" yarn in "diamond," which is a white yarn with a silver metallic thread woven throughout.  I like this yarn because it gives the finished snowflake a little sparkle without my having to do the extra step of adding glitter during the stiffening process.  
I used a size D3/3.25mm crochet hook to get the size snowflakes I wanted.  You could certainly use a larger hook with this yarn.  Experiment to see what you like.

Once you have crocheted your snowflakes, you will probably want to use some sort of stiffener to finish them off.  I used a simple method of dipping them in a mixture of equal parts white glue and water.  I first measured and mixed up the glue and water.  Next I saturated the snowflake in the mixture and squeezed out the excess.  Then I lay it flat on a tinfoil-covered piece of cardboard (thicker is better).  I used sewing pins to keep it in place while it dried -- about 24 hours.  

There are many different methods out there for stiffening crocheted snowflakes -- spray adhesive, glues, starch.  For your convenience, I have included a list of web sites that I found particularly helpful at the bottom of this post.

There are many different ways to give these beautiful one-of-a-kind ornaments.  Besides giving them as stand-alone gifts, you can use them to embellish a store-bought gift.  
How about giving one to your child's teacher (along with a thank you card made by your child)?  
How about leaving one in the mailbox for your mail carrier?  
Slip one over the neck of a bottle of wine for a lovely hostess gift.  
Making a gift basket for someone on your list?  How about replacing the bow with a snowflake instead?  
The possibilities are endless!  
No matter how you decide to give them, I hope you have fun making these simple, inexpensive, and elegant gifts for your friends and family!

Want to learn more?  Check out some of these web sites:

Yarnovations
Click to download the free snowflake crochet patterns.  It will take you to a pdf file.  Pages 2 and 3 of the pdf file have some great information on stiffening and describe a few different methods.


JPF Crochet Club
Click where it says to download the free pdf file for the snowflake pattern shown.  If you read through the pdf file, you will see a description of how to stiffen the snowflake using fabric stiffener.


eHow
This page describes how to starch a crocheted snowflake.


Tangleweeds
Great site with lots of information about making crocheted snowflake ornaments.