Crocheted Snowflake

Welcome, welcome everybody to our live crochet event. I'm Brenda KB Anderson. And today I'm gonna be showing you guys how to make these adorable crocheted snowflakes. Are they so cute? Um So this one's super tiny uh because we're using like a thinner weight yarn or a crochet thread really? And this one is a little bit bigger. I'm gonna be demonstrating with a thicker yarn, which will be about this size when I'm done with it. But the pattern is meant to be used with really any kind of yarn that you want. So this is a really good project for you if you just have some stuff in your stash. Um and it, you know, you don't have to go out and get a very specific thing. So that makes this extra fun. All right, I am so happy that you guys are here. Hello. Um This, of course, as I mentioned is live event. And so if you have any questions about what I'm doing, if you wanted me to go over something, um if I wasn't clear or if you have any general questions that you wanna ask me or if you just wanna say Hello and tell me where you're crocheting from or tell me what you're working on or tell me, like, how far you are through all of your holiday plans for crochet. That would be an interesting thing to talk about too. Um, drop any of that stuff into the comment box as well as, and usually at my lives, I mentioned this too. I love it when you guys, if you have an idea for something I can do in the future, um Something that you want me to design and then teach, then definitely put those ideas in there too, if you've got any of those too. All right. So, um so let's get started talking about your materials. First of all, you're gonna wanna down download the free pattern. Crochet snowflake, the crochet snowflake um In this pattern, it has all of the materials you'll need. It has all the instructions written out. And it also has a uh a chart in um in the back which is my preferred method of teaching. I'm very visual, a visual learner. Um And it really helps me to have that to teach from, but also when making somebody else's pattern, it just really helps me to have that chart if you've never worked with a chart ever before. Um This is a good time to start. I'll be talking you through it. But also if you're just like, uh I don't, I don't really ever care to learn. I do just fine with the written directions. They're all in there too. So you don't need to worry. Um, you don't have to ever look at the chart if you don't want to. That's fine. All right. So you'll need your pattern. You will need a small amount of yarn. Like if you're making it up with AAA worst weight or AD K weight yarn, maybe about the size of a plum amount of yarn. Um, and then just a very, very small amount. If you're using a crochet, crochet, crochet thread, um, even less, just such a small amount of yarn. So the awesome thing is, is you could make so many snowflakes out of just one ball of this or if you just happen to have a little bit of leftovers from another project that you had, this is just a great place to use those. So, all right. So you just need whatever you're using. I recommend it would be some cotton preferably or some kind of plant, uh, blend or, you know, like linen or, um, bamboo would work as well. I'm a little wary. I haven't actually tried using acrylic or wool, but I'm a little nervous about recommending those because I'm afraid it's not gonna soak up the fabric stiffener in the same way. I'm just worried it's not gonna turn out right. But if you're an experimental person and you're like, I have all this white acrylic yarn and, you know, maybe just try one out and see if it works and then report back to us because I would like to know. All right. So, um I am also gonna suggest too if you're thinking about using this um to tie onto a package or maybe hang as an ornament or even want some sort of hanging loop or hanging string, think about what would look good with your project. So, uh my suggestions are, you know, if you're doing something that's a little bit more like farmhouse style boho thing going on in your Christmas decor, maybe some kind of very thin twine would look really nice. Um But if you're doing something, maybe you wanna make this out of a crochet, crochet thread that has a little sparkle to it and it's bright white and really, um you know, kind of pops out at you. Maybe you wanna use some sort of very thin silver thread or some kind of ribbon or something like that. Um You'll just need a very small amount for whatever you're going to, you know, if you're gonna hang it or tie it to a package or another thought that I had about a ways, ways to use these snowflakes. Um with these, these would make really awesome earrings. So you just need like fish hooks and then a jump ring for each side. And that's, I mean, that would be so cute. I should have done that for today, but I didn't think about that until this morning. Um, all right. And then you're gonna need a crochet, crochet hook. I don't know why I'm having this problem saying crochet today. Um, but you're gonna need a hook and I'm gonna be using an E hook, which is a 3.5 millimeter hook and I'm gonna be using that with a decay weight. Um, actually kind of a thinner worsted weight. This is technically a worsted weight yarn. Um, But it's the same weight as the decay that I crocheted this up with. So, um, and, and that might seem kind of small, but I really like it when the stitches look kind of tight. So if you're able to do that, it doesn't hurt your hands too much. Use a hook that maybe is, um, a little smaller than you would normally use for whatever fiber or whatever um, weight yarn you're using and when you start crocheting it up, just make sure that there aren't, you know, big holes between your stitches and it, you know, your hook should be big enough that it's not gonna be so tight that you can't, you can't work into your stitches. Um So for example, um, if I was crocheting up with this size 10 crochet thread, which is what I used for this tiny little snowflake here, let me put my hand behind there. So you guys can see. Um Then I used a 1.5 millimeter hook, a very small steel hook for that to make sure that my gauge was nice and tight. All right. Um, you're gonna need some sort of a yarn needle or an embroidery needle. If you're using a crochet, crochet thread, um, just depending on the thickness of your yarn, you need something to weave in your ends and you, you are also going to be needing some, some stuff for the fabric, fabric stiffening part. So, um, all looks like we have some people saying hello, Renee is saying, how do you from Texas? Howdy Renee and uh Melissa saying hello from very chilly southeastern Kentucky. You know what, for being in Minnesota? It really hasn't been that cold here recently. It's a little chillier here today, but we don't have any snow at all, which is usually a little bit unusual for this time of year and I'm kind of hoping it snows before Christmas, but we're making our own snow. It's here today. Um And Elaine says, hi, hi, Elaine. Welcome you guys. Thanks so much for saying hi. All right. So I'm gonna be using in this demonstration. I'll be using this fabric stiffener and I know that this has been discontinued, but I put a link in the pattern for another fabric stiffener which I have used on other projects. Actually, I used it last time I was stiffening something for um this website. Uh the photo frames, it was called sunshine photo frames. I used a different stiffener, but they work exactly the same. It's just a different brand. So I put a link for that in your pattern. Um just in case you were wondering exactly what it is where to get it. You know, what, what, what it is basically. So it's just like it's, it looks like white glue, it looks like Elmer's glue. I'm not exactly sure what the difference is, but it is made specifically for, for a stiffening fabric and it dries clear. Um, but I have noticed that when you put it on your, your fibers, it makes it just a tiny bit darker, like not as dark as it looks when it is wet, you know, when something is wet or even when the fabric stiffener is in there before it dries, it looks darker, but it does dry just a teensy bit darker than, um, than it looks when, you know, without the fabric stiffener in it, but it's not really very noticeable and it doesn't really have a sheen or anything to it. It's not, not a very noticeable thing. Um, and then you're gonna need either you can use your hands to work it in and I will be demonstrating this later. So you'll see or possibly you wanna get a paint brush for kind of poking the fabric stiffener, making sure that it saturates your piece. And then you're gonna need also, um, a piece of either wax paper or some kind of plastic wrap or I'm gonna be using parchment paper because that allows your piece to dry on it and not get stuck. You know, don't, don't do this on a piece of paper because it, it, if it dries on the paper, it's going to rip the paper and the paper will become part of your project and it won't look very nice. So you need something to let it dry on where it's not gonna stick. And I'm using this paper plate and I'll show you a little bit more about why I'm using this later when I do my demo on, on stiffening it. Um, but that is optional and that you're also gonna need some pins. Um, not your best sewing pins ever because they might end up with a little bit of residue of the glue on it. I have actually reused these pins afterwards for many other things. I just kind of run my finger along and scrape off any residue that there was, you know, that built up on the pin as it was drying and it seemed totally fine to use for my other sewing projects. But, you know, I just want to put that out there. I don't want anyone ruining their favorite sewing pins, um, on this project. All right. So looks like, oh, and Judy is saying, greetings from Virginia. Hello, Judy. Thanks for joining us. All right. So let's get started. I am going to be working this up in blue yarn. So that you guys can see what I'm doing because we have this white table here and I thought it would just show up a little bit better. Um And that made me start thinking about like, oh would these snowflakes look good in other colors? Actually, I mean for the most part, we make things you know, snowflakes in white, but I thought this could be really cool in like a whole range of light pastel colors like pastel rainbows, snowflakes. I thought that would be kind of fun. Alrighty. So I'm gonna start and I'm gonna be working from the chart, but like I said before, the written directions will be telling you everything there is to know about this chart. One thing that I did notice um I didn't notice until like about a half an hour ago is that I to put the numbers for the rounds on here in your chart. So if you take a look at this, this first blue round here, put a little one right there in that place. That's just above that. This is, this is a um chain here that represents a chain. So put a one right there and then where you see these three black chains coming up, put a little two just to the right of that and over here right above this blue chain, you'll put a three right next to that. So those are the beginnings of rounds 12 and three and I will try to get that updated as soon as possible. But just in case you've already downloaded this, you really don't need to print it out a second time. Um, you could just put those numbers in there. All right. So we're gonna start by making a chain of six. So begin with your slipknot. However you like to do that, I'll make a little cursive e flip my little loop over onto the strand connected to my ball and then I will place my hook underneath that strand just like that and tighten it up. And now we're gonna change six. So and six. Now we're gonna make a slip stitch in the very first chain that we made. So right over here, we're gonna insert our hook and then we'll yarn over and bring that loop up and bring it through the loop on our hook. So that makes a little tiny circle. And now we're gonna begin working round one, which is right here. So these little chains right here, these represented the chains that we started with. So 123456, that little dot represents a slip stitch where we slip stitch into that first chain. And now we're going to create a chain one just um it's not gonna count as a stitch or anything. It's just to kind of get us up to the next level here and then we're gonna make 12 single crochets into this ring that's the little plus signs are a single crochet. So in case you're not familiar with what these symbols are, they're all listed down here. Chain, single crochet, slip stitch treble and double crochet. All right. So we're gonna chain one doesn't count as anything. And now we're going to do s uh 12 single crochets into that little loop. So, one, two, three, four, five. And just in case you don't know what a single crochet is, that just means you insert, you aren't over, pull up a loop and then you have two loops on your hook. You're an over and pull through two. OK. So that was 6123456, seven, eight, nine And um maybe some of you noticed this, but I am crocheting over my beginning. Yarn tail. You don't need to do that. You could just let it hang towards the back. If you're newer at crocheting, don't even worry about it. We'll weave that in later. But if you're, you know, if you've been crocheting a while and you know that you can crochet over those yarn tails, it just helps. So you don't have quite so much to weave in later. All right, two more single crochets, one and two. Now we are going to join with the slip stitch to the very first single crochet that we made, which is right here. So here's our slip stitch dot It's telling us to join there right here. And then we are going to chain three plus two more. So a total of five. So the first three count as the first Treble crochet and then there's two chains and then there's another trouble crochet after that. OK. So we're gonna be working on round two. So we're gonna chain 123 and then four and five. And now we are going to place this trouble stitch into the next single crochet. So this counts as the first stitch that counts as though we worked into that stitch. So now we're gonna yarn over two times. Insert into the next stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop, you're on over, pull through two, you're an over pull through two, you're an over, pull through two for our trouble. And here we are in the chart right here. We just did that trouble and now we're going to create this little loop here. So that's three chains. Um If you're newer to charts, you may not know, sometimes we alternate colors per round and that just, that just helps us distinguish um you know, as we're working our way around, where do our stitches go? What is part of this round? It, it would be a different color as the round before or the round after not all charts are like that. Um But I like to do that whenever I can. OK. So we're gonna chain six chains. So 12345 and six and then we're going to make another trouble right here into the next single crochet stitch. So yarn over twice, insert into the next single crochet yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through two yarn over, pull through two yarn over, pull through two. So now we have that long, that taller loop sticking out. Ok. Let's see. Oh, I gotta catch up here. Lots of people saying hi. Hi, you guys, Judy. M says, greetings from Virginia C Wolfpack. Greetings from Snowy central Pennsylvania. Oh, you have snow? Awesome. Chris says good morning from Northern Nevada and Nancy saying hello from Long Island, New York. Hello. See Wolf Pack. Oomg Brenda. I love that sweater with the, oh, I don't even know how to say that to still thinks. Did you make it? And I wish I made it. I have to say I found this sweater at a thrift store and fell in love with it and had to buy it. I do a lot of thrift store shopping because I like to rescue wool sweaters from the thrift store and then I felt them and make mittens and hats and things out of them. Um, and that's what I was doing and I found the sweater and I was like, not gonna, not gonna chop that sweater up. Um, let's see. D Diana. I'm not really sure if I'm saying your name right. And I'm sorry, or maybe do Dona, um, love your videos. Thank you from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Thank you so much. That was very sweet. Uh And another person likes my sweater. Thank you. I'm really wishing I had made this. Now. Um Linda says hello from Nebraska and she loves crocheting and see wolf pack. Could you do this with a magic loop instead of a chain? You could, um, you could do it with a magic loop. Usually I wait. Um, usually I don't use a magic loop if it's something where my loop is gonna remain open because then you kind of have to fix it at that point, which is fine and you can absolutely do that. If you're just a fan of the magic loop, you can absolutely do that. And then you just weave in that end and it will be totally fine. Um But I like when things are open like this, I like to do it with the chains because it just makes it a little bit less, it feels a little more secure, especially when you're putting all 12 of those single crochets in there. Um But either way it would totally work. And then by the time you stiffen it, it is super secure, it's never going anywhere. So you don't need to worry. All righty. So let's see. We've just done this Treble crochet here. Now we're gonna chain two and then we're basically repeating the same thing we've already done over and over. OK. So we're gonna do a chain 212. And now we're gonna do a treble to the next stitch 12 and three. And now we're gonna change 6123456 and then a Treble. So every time we're working into those single crochets, we are always doing a Treble stitch here in this round. And basically, we are just alternating between a chain two space and a chain six space. So there's our chain two and then we're gonna do a treble in the next stitch and then a chain 612345 and six. And then a trouble into the following stitch and then a chain 212 in another trouble. And then a chain 612 3456. And then another treble 123 and then a chain 212 and then a treble into the next ditch 123 and then a chain 612345 and six. And then a treble into the next ditch 12 and three. There's our treble chain 212 just to catch you up. This is where we're at here in our chart. We're gonna do a treble into the last available single crochet right here. And then, instead of doing a chain six here, I do a chain five. If, if um if you have, if you just want to do a chain six, you absolutely can, if that just makes it easier for you to memorize. But I find that after you make your chain loop and then you do your slip stitch, it seems like it makes that chain just a little too long for me. At least when I'm crocheting it. So I switched that to a chain five instead. So 1234 and five. And then I find the third, uh third chain that I made. So 123 and then I'm going to, oh, it's right here. And then I'm going to make a slip stitch into that chain. So just grab that yarn, pull through and pull through that loop on the hook. And so that slip stitch kind of sits a little bit further to the right. And that's what ma makes this seem long enough to me now, even though I only had five chains. So if you try that and you're like, uh looks too short, I don't like it. Then you can just do a chain sticks at that point instead of a chain five. So it's just something I've been doing recently and I feel like it's helping my pieces look a little more uniform, but it might also just depend on how you crochet, how you make those slip stitches. OK. So this is where we're at. We just did that little black dot That's our slip stitch and now we're gonna be working round three. So we're gonna chain one, which is right here. Chain one and then we're gonna make that, that plus sign is a single crochet. So we're gonna single crochet into this chain. Two space. So we chain one and good morning to Shay Lynn and, and Debbie is also saying hi from Oklahoma. Hello. Hi, guys. All right. So I did my chain and now I'm gonna do a single crochet into this chain. Two space. So I just insert here and over, pull up the loop here and over and pull through two. There's my single crochet and now I'm going to start making all of this stuff. OK? So I'm gonna chain two and make a double crochet into this chain six loop. So chain 21 and two. And now I'm gonna do a double crochet or maybe I'll put this on the side here so you guys can see what I'm doing. So I'm gonna make a double crochet into this chain loop this long chain six loop. So here, oh, to make a double crochet, you just yarn over, insert, you're an over, pull up a loop, you're an over, pull through two, yarn over, pull through two. So there's my double crochet and now I'm going to chain 612345 and six because that's right here. Now I'm gonna do another double crochet and in the same chain loop. So you aren't over and when you, when you do a double crochet and you're just kind of, you have this long chain, it makes things easier if, when you yarn over, you hold on to that loop with your finger as you're going in here. So it doesn't slide all over the place. So insert yarn over, pull up a loop and then you're an over, pull through two, yarn, over, pull through two and I'm gonna slide that over. See right now it's in the middle of that chain loop and I need it to be a little bit more over to the side like that. And then we're gonna do a cha change six to get up to the tip of this. Um little point here. So 12345 and six. And then I'm going to do a slip stitch into the second chain from my hook. So this is the first chain and there's the second chain and I'm going to do a slip stitch into that. But I'm, I like to slip stitch into the bottom of my chain. So I roll it over. See those vs, I roll those over until I can see those horizontal loops or horizontal dashes on the back. That's where I'm going to insert my hook and I'm gonna yarn over and pull through that stitch and pull through the loop on my hook. And that makes a little PICO like a little tiny point on the tip of the, the snowflake. And then we're gonna chain four. So 1234, 123 and four and then we have another double crochet into that same chain six space. So you're an over insert, you're an over pull up loop, you're an over pull through two, you're an over pull through two. And then we have a chain 612345 and six. And then we have another double crochet in the same chain six loop. Here's our double crochet and this is where we're, we're at right here. After we've done that, we're going to chain two and make a single crochet into the next chain two loop. I'll turn it this way as you can see what I'm doing. That be right side up to you. So I'll change to one and two and then we're gonna make a single crochet into this chain to loop. There's our single crochet. OK. So right now we've just done one point here. You can see what it looks like. We're gonna continue making these points onto every uh place where there's a chain six loop on all of those. And we kind of come back in and make that one single crochet in those chain, two spaces between those longer loops. All right. So I'm gonna continue my way working my way around. All right, I'm gonna chain 21 and two. And then a double crochet here into the next chain six loop, double crochet, chain 6123456, another double crochet and then chain 6123456. Then we're gonna slip stitch into the second chain from our hook into the bottom of that chain there. So insert your hook, grab that yarn, pull through, pull through the loop on your hook. And then we're gonna chain 41234. Then we're gonna make a double crochet into the same chain six loop right there. And then we're gonna change six 123456 and then another double crochet into that same chain loop. And then we chain 21 and two. And then we make a single crochet into this chain two space. OK? So we made the second point. I know they don't look very pointy yet, but they will, don't worry. And now we're just gonna continue repeating um those same sets of stitches all over again. OK? So chain two and a double crochet and a chain six and a double crochet. And then a chain 6123456 slip stitch in the second stitch from the hook and chain 41234, double crochet. So every time we work into those chain six loops, when we're working into the loop, we're making a double crochet. When we're working into the chain two loops, we're making a single crochet and we're gonna chain 612345 and six. And then another double crochet into that chain six loop and chain 21 and two. There's that chain two loop. So we're making a single crochet there and then we're gonna chain 21 and two. And then we start all over again, double crochet 456 chain six, double crochet chain 6123456 slip stitch into the second chain from the hook chain 41234, double crochet chain 612345 and six and double crochet same space and then chain 21 and two and single crochet into the next chain two space and we start over 12. Just have two more points to make here. 12345 and six. I'm wondering if any of you guys have some other ideas about what to use these snowflakes for if you guys have plans for them, 123456 slip stitch in the second chain from the hook chain, 4123 and four, double crochet in the same chain. Six loop chain 6123456, double crochet chain 21 N two and then single crochet into that chain two space 12. And here's our last point. There's our double crochet 23456 chain six and another double crochet and then 123456 slip stitch in the second chain from the hook chain 41234, double crochet chain 6123. Actually hang on one second. I gotta double check and see if we're really cha 60, yes, we are. Ok. 123, 456. Here we are right here on our chart. Ok. We've just done that last chains sticks loop. We're going to do another double crochet into that same chain six loop down here right there. One and two that completes our double crochet. Then we have a chain one and a slip stitch into that first single crochet. Again. This is like the previous round. Normally, we would do two chains here and then slip stitch. But I've just been finding that it looks a little Tidier that just seemed like it was making my chain space a little too wide there and it seemed noticeable to me. So I started doing just one chain and the slip stitch there and that seemed to be working well for me. So chain one and then there is a very first single crochet that we did in the round and we are gonna make a slip stitch right there. So there's our slip stitch. All right. And now I'm gonna cut off, cut my yarn and I'm just gonna go ahead and pull that right through that very last um that slip stitch there and then I'm gonna weave in my ends. So weaving in ends, this one is easier because it, there's a thicker area right here to weave in. Um And this one, I like to weave it down into this area to weave it in. So, um, you know, this, if you, if you use a very lightweight yarn like a lace weight or, or a, um, crochet a crochet thread that's like a number 10 crochet thread or even smaller, then you're gonna have to use a very thin needle in order to get it through everything. OK, I'm gonna turn this over so that the wrong side is facing and then I'm going to just slide my needle down into the thickness of my stitches here, just taking one little stitch there. And now I'm going to run it down here and get it to that center ring because it's just so much easier to weave in my end. Um where there's a little bit more thickness there instead of these very, you know, just a post stitch is kind of hard to weave your ends into there we go. And since you're gonna be using fabric stiffener, you don't even really need to be all that careful. Nor normally I'm so insistent on going back and forth at least twice in two different directions or more. Um But really it doesn't matter because once you put that fab fabric stiffener in your ends are not gonna come out. All right, I'm going to trim that off and I'm going to do the same thing to the other end and then I'm going to show you how to stiffen it. And Debbie is saying they would be great for school or for church fundraisers. Yeah. Yeah. And they're so fast to make, I mean, they're really, really quick once you get going and you, I know this might seem like a lot to memorize at first. But after you've done it a couple of times you'll start to just be able to see this pattern. And remember there's a lot of chaining sixes if you just, you know, remember the places where things, you know, if it's a chain six or chain two and things like that, then you can memorize the whole thing and then that makes it even faster because you don't have to go back and forth looking at your instructions. Um Yeah, and you can just, it's only three rounds, you guys quick. All right. This might be like one of the first times I've ever done a live where I didn't feel like I had to hurry up a lot at the end to get everything in. Ok. So, you know, this, this looks pretty snowflake ish, but it really does not look very polished until you do the fabric stiffener. So even if you block this, you can block it, but then as soon as you pick it up, it's, it just doesn't have, it's, it's gonna start to curl and do funny things. So I highly, highly recommend getting the fabric stiffener for this. Um Unless you're gonna sew it on to something else or leave it flat like, you know, like part of a coaster or something like that. Um I definitely recommend using the fabric stiffener. I have heard and I haven't tested this, but I have heard people have just used regular Elmers glue um in the same way that I'm going to be using this fabric stiffener. So that is another thing to think about like you, maybe you just don't want to spend the money on fabric stiffener and you just wanna make one snowflake. If you happen to have Elmer's glue, you could try it with that. I know other people have done like starch or also a mixture of flour and water. There's all kinds of different things that might be worth Googling if you, if you just don't really feel like buying the fabric stiffener and you just wanna, you know, make one or two of these. If you're making a bunch, this fabric stiffener doesn't really cost that much. And I, I just think it's, it's worth it because it works and it's, I don't know, there might be other projects you might, you might get excited about doing this. Um So it might be worth it. Ok. So to use the fabric stiffener, there's a couple of different ways you can do it. You can just squeeze a little on there and kind of poke your paint brush at it to kind of um make it soak, soak up the fabric stiffener. See, I, I ruined my bottle. Oh, I should have opened this earlier. Let me see. Oh, I might not be able to get this open. I might need my, my friend over here to help me. Can you try that? I think I got too much fabric stiffener stuck on my bottle. But, um, maybe you noticed I had this on top of it. We might be able to run it under water and get it. We're trying to find out if we have some pliers to open up my fabric stiffener. Ok. Anyway, there's a couple of different ways that you can do this. So you can squeeze out like you can leave your piece on top of your parchment paper and just kind of drizzle it on top and then you can kind of work in the fabric stiffener with your paint brush like this into all of your stitches and smush it into it. And that really saves the most fabric stiffener. If you're worried about using a lot, maybe you're gonna make a ton of these, um, or the, the way that I just started doing it because it's quicker is I just squeezed out a puddle in here, which is what I'm gonna show you as soon as we get that thing open. And then I'm going to use, just kind of soak up all the fabric stiffener and smoosh it around with my hands. And that really tends to get the fabric stiffener really into those fibers. And I find that it makes the stiffer snowflake rather than just sort of pushing it in with your paintbrush. So, um, that's the way that I would go. But you know, you, you maybe you don't want as tiff of a snowflake. Is that what I was looking for? Looks like we got it open here. Sorry about that guys. Thank you. All right. Ok. So here it is, here's my very old bottle of fabrics different or that still works. All right. So I'm just gonna pour a little puddle in here and mush my snowflake around in it. I know this looks really terrible at first and you might be like, wow, you just, are you ruining your project, Brenda? Is this a good idea? But I have done this before. I promise it's gonna work. You know, it seems crazy and if your fabric stiffener is like too thick, um I think the other fabric stiffener might have been even thicker than this one. You can water it down if you feel like you need to uh to get to get it to really soak into your project. And it'll seem like where's all this fabrics different are gonna go. It's just kind of sitting on the surface, but it does kind of get soaked up after you let it dry for a while. And I'm a little concerned I didn't get enough over here. So I'm gonna add just a little more on top of my piece some over here. And just kind of squish it into my project. I'm just mushing it in. All right. So I think that's pretty saturated. It should feel wet and you can really see the fabric stiffener on mine because I did this with blue. And part of the reason was so that you could actually see how much fabric stiffener I was putting in here. It's quite a bit. Um, but it should be nice and it should feel pretty saturated. You know, it should, the whole thing should feel wet. You shouldn't feel any like dry, dry parts. Ok. So then the next thing that I do, I'm just gonna check and make sure. Yeah, I didn't get any fabric stiffener on my plate. So I'm gonna flip my plate over. So this is, you know, the the bottom of my plate is facing up and then I take my parchment paper that's all sticky and I just glue it basically to my plate because I already have that fabric stiffener kind of stuck to it. So it'll stay in place and it won't be moving around when I'm trying to get this all pinned out. So then at this point, you wanna stretch it like from opposite ends, kind of like you're stretching a canvas if you've ever done that before, where you go from one side to the other and then move your way around and just try and look at those, try to make sure they're in a a straight line from each other. Ok. Oh, you guys are having some good ideas here. I gotta go back and see what everybody's ideas are. Ok. So Renee is saying that Debbie Debbie has a good idea. I like to attach them to gift bags and of course regular gifts. Yes, absolutely. Sue mcvicker is saying, I imagine these in silk threads for a tiny package. Decor. That would be so cute. And let's see. Um, see, wolfpack is saying supposedly you can use cornstarch and water too. Ok. That's a good tip. I think I have heard that before, but I kind of forgot about that. I've never tried it though if anybody has already done that. Um, definitely let us know how that works. All right. So looks like I need to make these a little bit more even. So you need to look at, um, where the points are and try to make them as evenly spaced as you can when you're stretching them out. So the reason I like to put my plate upside down like this, you might have been wondering it's because it gives me a thing to pin into my pin, just kind of sinks into the plate and goes into the hollow space underneath and that seems to be enough. All right, and then I want to pin all of these. So I'm going to pin them up like this. I pin them you can and you know, this is a little bit of like, you know, an artistic eye here where you need to just be looking at where, you know, if you wanna pull these straight out or if you wanna pull them slightly up, you know, that's kind of up to you. But I would try to make them all a similar, you know, pull them in similar directions so that you can, um, you know, keep your snowflake looking, looking uniform. And I feel like this is one of those things that, you know, if you get it all pinned and then take a step back or take a photo of it before it dries. Um You might see if there's anything that you wanna move first before you let it dry. Sometimes it's hard when you're like, you know, a couple feet away from it and looking at it, it's harder to see. Oh I got a tough spot on my plate there. OK. Yeah. Uh Diane said since we're wrapping gifts today, I'll use these to embellish the tags and labels. Awesome. She says P si was doing fine until my cat decided to join me. Oh my gosh, I can still relate to that. So I, I don't know if you guys know this, but I oftentimes make tiktok videos for craftsy for Craftsy S tiktok. And so I make these quick little videos from my house um on craft projects and things like that. And my cat is constantly trying to get in the videos, like I have so many videos on my phone of me talking about something and then all of a sudden my cat comes through and just takes the ball of yarn or bats at, like I'll be taught, showing something and then all of a sudden you see these cat paws getting in the way. Um So sometime I'm gonna have to make a little compilation of just me trying to teach and my cat getting in the way. I'm sure lots of people could relate, especially you, Diane. Um, Debbie is saying maybe spritzing with water before adding the fabric stiffener might help. Oh, to let it soak in, maybe that might help too. Um Yeah, I don't know, I've never done that before but maybe that helps it soak up the fabric stiffener. See, I can feel it's already starting to dry. So maybe if you need some more time to work with it, um, maybe getting it a little bit more wet or adding a little bit of water to the fabric stiffener might be a bonus because then you'd have a little bit more time to work with it. Let's see. Gloria is saying, I wonder how two or three might fit on a glass or a foam ball. Oh, interesting. Yeah, that could be a little, um, a little exercise in math, right. Getting all the points to link up and going around something round and sue mcvicker saying, curious if you use flour, cornstarch. Does it attract critters and storage? Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know the answer to that. Yeah. But maybe since it's a food thing it might, I don't know. Um, Renee saying if I made several of these during hot summer months, what is a good way to store them for the holiday season in separate Ziploc bags? Several in a Ziploc with parchment in between. So, Renee, I have some of these actually, it wasn't these, it was the photo frames that I made and I made them quite a while ago and it, it does get pretty humid in, in Minnesota here and I just had them all in a bag together with the fabric stiffener. It didn't make it sticky at all. I don't know if you live somewhere where it's like super humid but, um, I didn't have any problems at all with it doing anything weird. It was perfectly fine all summer. Um Yeah, and now they're, I just looked at them when I was doing this because I, um, was checking to see, um, if I, if my um, hanging thread was with that anyway. Um, and yeah, and they looked perfectly fine. So, ok. And sea wolf pack is saying to sue maybe store them in an air in airtight containers. Yeah, that's a good idea. Sue Sue mcvicker is saying I always seem to spend more time fiddling than it took to make it. I do this with sizing grafting stitches too. Yep. I know. It's funny because yeah, you wanna make everything look so good and it sometimes it just takes a long time to get it to look exactly how he wanted to and like this was really quick to crochet up, but you do need to take a little time to make it all look. Yeah, just so. All right. Let's see. A couple more comments here. Sue is saying airtight containers makes sense. We did manage to preserve all those sour flo flower ornaments for all those years. That is true. I mean, we had a lot of crocheted ornaments when I was growing up from my, I think from my great grandma, I'm not totally sure, but I'm, I'm guessing she probably did not use like a commercial fabric stiffener for those. Probably not. She probably used some kind of starch or flour or something. Um, oh, and Renee saying Texas. Yes. Humid. OK. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if you could put something in like, uh maybe rice or something in, in a, in a paper bag or a mesh bag. Would that absorb the humidity? That's just something like, you know how when people drop their phone into the water, they're supposed to put it in a rice bowl. I don't know if that really works. But um to kind of suck up the humid, the humidity, maybe if you did, but then maybe that would attract critters too. I don't know. Uh, lots of good conversation here. You guys about troubleshooting. Um, Nancy says my friend had a number of snowflakes angels that have been made by her mother and Stan was sugar starch. She opened them to find they were destroyed by critters. Also a hot humid attic may be a problem. Oh, that's so sad. But yeah, so maybe, you know, if you want these to last for a long time, it might be better to stay away from the food, you know, the food oriented starching methods here and just kind of go with the fabric stiffener or try glue. Maybe that would be better, but it's so hard to know what to do. All right. Well, we don't have time to let this whole thing dry, but I think it looks pretty good and you guys get the idea and so once your piece is totally dry, you can just take, you know, a little loop of your twine or string or whatever and run it through the very tip of your snowflake. Um, another thing to think about when you are drying this. If you're, if you're using a ribbon and you want it to go through the very, very tip of your snowflake, you could put the ribbon in before you finish letting it or even before you starch it. If you don't mind the ribbon getting a little bit of starch because once you starch it, it gets kind of gluey and stiff and it might be hard to thread something through the very, very tip. You can thread it through just below the PICO, which I think looks fine. But if you wanted it to go in through the very tip, um, you could, you could either use a larger pin at that point and just make sure it's big enough, you know, poke it into whatever you're blocking it into, um, or, you know, threaded through beforehand. So that's just another thing to think about if you're concerned about that. Um But I think, uh you know, for most people, it probably be fine just to run it through right below where that PICO is hooked together. All right. So I hope that you guys enjoyed this. Uh Thank you guys so much for being so active in the chat. It's really awesome to see all of these like ideas and suggestions coming in from everybody. We're all, we're all smarter when we all talk to each other and share our experiences. And I really appreciate that you guys have been so active in the chat today. So, oh Renee saying, uh oh, de decoupage, what about that? That is an interesting idea too. You guys are still having interesting ideas coming in. Oh my goodness. Steve said, put some cat litter in a sachet with the storage for moisture, absorb absorption when storing. That's a better idea than the rice one because then you're not gonna attract the Critters. Great idea. Thank you, Steve. All right. Well, thank you guys so much for joining me. I really appreciate this. Hope you guys have a wonderful holiday season. Stay safe and happy. Crocheting to everybody. Bye.