Snowflakes

The heat has really arrived here this week so during the day we've had the air conditioners on a bit, especially in the afternoon when the house really heats up.  They will probably be on most days from now until next March/April and that for me usually means more crochet time.

I find it so much nicer to sit in a comfortably cool room crocheting than sweltering away and getting grumpier by the second.

Anyway, I've been crocheting some snowflakes lately to make a garland to hang up around the house at Christmas.  It's a project that's easily portable and takes no time to make one or two up every now and then.  I'm getting quite a nice pile all of a sudden which is good so hopefully I'll be able to link them all together soon.

Once I've finished a few of them then I've been blocking them to give them a lovely open snowflake look.  If  you've never blocked before and are like I was in the early days of my crochet journey then I'll show you what a difference it can make.  

In the above photo, 3 of the snowflakes have been blocked and 3 haven't.  Can you guess which ones are which?

Blocking is really quite easy, especially on a small project like this.  I like to use the kids old cot mattress which sits on my bed nicely and I can move it around if I have to.  I then put protective plastic on it which is the old mattress protector from when they were babies.  I've also used a cheap plastic tablecloth that I got for $2 from the local discount shop.

Then I put a towel or two down and start to pin out whatever project it is I'm working on.  I like to work from the inside out as it blocks more evenly and I find you don't stretch it out too much.

In the case of the snowflakes, I soaked them in the bathroom hand basin for about 30 seconds and got all the fibres really wet.  Then I gently removed as much of the water as possible before pinning them out.  You could also use a spray bottle with water in it and give it a good soaking once it's pinned out.

You can see on the next photo the difference in the top half to the bottom where I hadn't finished pinning it out yet.

The next photo shows a blocked and unblocked snowflake.  The one on left is the blocked one.

I usually have the ceiling fan on in the bedroom too and they dry in no time at all.  Because I'm making a garland out of these I've sprayed them with a bit of starch so that they will hold their shape while hanging up.

Sometimes it's a bit fiddly pinning everything out, especially if you are doing a bigger project but the end result is well worth it.

I have also FINALLY received my yarn order from the UK (2 days shy of 3 weeks to get here).

I couldn't wait to get started on a project and dithered around for a little while trying to work out which one to begin.

In the end I decided that Master M's blanket was the most important project as well as the biggest one so I would make a start on that.  I still have snowflakes to finish so I'll work on those when I want a break from the rhythm of crocheting a ripple blanket.

Aren't the colours just gorgeous.  Master M is pretty excited about his blanket.

I was able to get a little bit done on it before we went away for the weekend.  (Hubby's cousin celebrated her 21st birthday so we packed up the camper trailer and drove out to their farm about 2 hours away....it was a fantastic night).

I got quite a few snowflakes made while I was away for the weekend as it was the perfect portable project.  It won't be long until I've finished them all and then I can really concentrate on the blanket for awhile.  

I'm really looking forward to that.

xx Susan