Presents for my CA Family

[Nova55]

I like to make little crocheted Christmas presents for my family and friends in California, and even though I'm in Chicago now, I still want to keep up this "tradition". I decided that this year would be snowflakes. How difficult to decide among the hundreds of patterns out there! But there was one that really caught my eye, and as soon as I saw it I knew this would be it.

Julia is the designer, and her blog and etsy store is called Draiguna. If you aren't familiar with this fantastic designer, please check out her work. She primarily works with size 10 crochet thread and her work is magnificent! She has put together a whole "Wispweave" series and released her free snowflake pattern just in time for me to use it. (I'm sure she planned it that way!!!)


Draiguna Wispweave Snowflake

Just because I have an overwhelming need to make patterns "my own", I did tweak this pattern just a little bit - I left off the last picot on the tips because I wanted a slightly more compact flake. I also used two colors -


My version with a white border


My version with a colored border

I like them with the two colors because they remind me of fancy decorated sugar cookies. I bought some glitter paint to add a little sparkle, but I wasn't impressed with what I bought. The glitter was too fine and only showed up under bright light. Oh well. I'm sure the people getting them will forgive me.

Now here's the funny part. There have been posts on crochet forums about NOT crocheting when you're tired. Good advice! I did a test snowflake in solid blue when I was pretty tired one night, and the next morning I looked at it and realized I had really messed up the pattern in the middle. The amazing thing to me is that the rest of the rounds actually worked out! A Christmas miracle to be sure.



I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a great shopping weekend, and as always - Happy Crocheting!

[PookieS21]

Beautiful! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

[Jean Marie]

Cool. Pretty snowflakes!

[spoula]

Hi Nova, I Love your post as always and your snowflakes are beautiful as is all your work. I like the one you said you made when you were tired it is just as pretty so only you would know what the pattern was supposed to look like.

Happy Holidays to you and your family,
Spoula

[MeToo!]

I just noticed your lovely snowflakes. Lucky folks who receive them.

At present I'm trying to crochet stars and snowflakes for Christmas decorations but am having endless trouble. It seems that the stitches near the center are so tightly bunched together that it's hard to get the hook in. I've tried so many so far and only one has worked. My eyesight is okay + I have a LED headlamp. The ones I complete won't lie flat even after blocking, they are frilly when they shouldn't be. So, I don't know what's going on.

In any case, I am going to try the Draiguna Wispweave.

[Nova55]

Thank you so much! So sorry to hear of your crocheting troubles - I hope you can figure out what's going on. Good luck with the Wispweave. If that goes better, please post some pics!