Motif of the Month December 2014: Snowflake 2 Crochet Tutorial

Hey everyone, it's Deja from Crochetverafter.com. Today is the newest motif of the month, December 2014, and I think I'm starting a new tradition. Every December I'm going to make a snowflake. So this is snowflake number two, and I'm using worsted weight yarn today. So you can see this is a pretty big motif that I wanted it to be easy to be seen on the video. And it is going to use a 5mm USH. But you can substitute with crochet thread if you want a smaller snowflake and something that's more stiff. Even though I've spray starched this, you can see it's still a little bit movable with the crochet thread, it won't move at all. So you can download the pattern below and we will go ahead and get started. Okay, to begin our snowflake, we're going to put a slipknot on our hook with a long enough tail to weave in. And we're going to chain four, so our snowflake's going to have an open center, so we're going to yarn over and pull through four times, and then we're going to join that with a slip stitch to form our center ring. So just insert your hook anywhere in the first chain, yarn over and pull that through, and then pull through the loop on your hook. So now we have our center ring. It looks more like a blob, but if you pull on it, you'll see a little hole right in the center, and we're going to work into that hole. So for round one, we're going to start off with a chain three, and that's going to count as our very first double crochet. Then we're going to put 15 more double crochets into this ring. So I yarn over. If you need to, pull it apart when you're putting your hook through, but put your hook right through that center hole. Then yarn over and pull up that loop, then yarn over and you pull through the first two, and yarn over and pull through the second two. And we're just going to keep doing that all the way around. Insert back in, pull up your loop, pull through two, pull through two. If you start running out of room in your ring, just pull your stitches over, because they do move because they're around the entire ring, so you can just grab your ring and pull your stitches over to fit all 16, because it's a little bit more than normal. Usually, for this size hole, you would do about 12 double crochets, but to get the right number of points for our snowflake, you need to do 16. So keep going until you get to 16, and then we'll join up together. Okay, I've done all 16 double crochets. My chain 3 is my 16th. If you are new to crochet and you lost count as you were going and it's a little difficult for you to count the fronts of your stitches, just remember you can turn your work sideways and you can count these stitches on top which look like the letter V. So each V is a stitch, so you just count 1, 2, 3, 4, all the way around to make sure that you have 16. This last one, when you get up here, this would be 15, and then these chain 3 would count as 16, so make sure you don't get confused with how it kind of goes right into the next one. So now we're going to join our ring with a slip stitch in the top of our chain three. So go ahead and just put your hook right through the center of that stitch, that last chain, yarn over, pull through, and then pull through the loop on your hook. So now we have our first round completed, and round two is very simple. The first thing we're going to do is chain eight. So the first three chains of our chain eight are going to count as a double crochet, And then the next five. Count while I do this so I don't miss one, are going to count as the five that we put in between the rest of our double crochets for this round. So I'm going to yarn over to get ready for a double crochet. I'm skipping my next stitch. So when you're looking at your beginning of your round, this chain three is coming out of the previous chain three. And then we have our next stitch over and our V right here. It's upside down. Oh, no, no, it's not. Um our V Actually it is. Oh, backwards, sorry. Our V, which is our next stitch, we're skipping this stitch and we're working our double crochet into the stitch after. So we're going to keep skipping a double crochet around. So we're going to put our double crochet in this stitch. And this chain 5 is going to kind of take the place of a double crochet that would go here. It's much bigger than a double crochet, but we're making a pointy star, or a pointy snowflake, so we need lots of extra room. I'll do 5 chains again, because remember we did chain 3 and chain 5. So I chain 5, I skip my next stitch, and I double crochet into the stitch after. So yarn over. Sometimes when you yarn over, it pulls your chains over your hook when you start crocheting. So you can see how it's kind of flopping over. You can just use your finger to kind of hold it in place while you pull through, and that way it won't flop on you. It doesn't really matter, it'll flop back, but if it's getting in your way and annoying you, that's how you can kind of stop it from happening. So then again, I'm going to chain 5, skip the next double crochet, and crochet into the next one. I'm going to do that all the way around, so I'll have one leftover double crochet at the end of our round, and then we'll join up, so keep going with your chain 5s and your double crochet, and we'll meet up right at the end. Okay, I just made my last double crochet. You can see I have one double crochet left here between my beginning chain 3 and the last double crochet. So I'm going to chain 5 because I need that in between this first and last. Okay, so if you need to count your chains also, just remember this is where your stitch is, this is where your double crochet is. You kind of pull and you see that hole? Your V right on top of that hole is your double crochet stitch. So cover that and then count your V's. So if you need to find where those begin, pull on your double crochet, look for the hole, the V right above it is connected to this stitch. So I did my last chain 5, and now I need to join my round, but I need to make sure I put it in the right spot. Remember the first chain three. Count it as our double crochet and then these five chains were the same as the rest of them. Sometimes this very first chain can get kind of small. That just tends to happen when you're making your chains. So don't count that one out. We have one, two, and three. I'm going to join right here the slip stitch. Now I'm ready for my third and final round. This works up very quickly. Now, I want to work in the middle of this chain 5 space, so if you're going to make a multicolored snowflake, you can actually fasten off right here for round 2 if you want to join in a new color for round 3. If you're making it all one color, to get to the middle of this chain 5 space, we're going to slip stitch in 2 of our chain 5. So we're going to slip stitch in our next chain, pull through the loop on your chain, Your chain and then the loop on your hook. So insert, pull up your loop, and pull it through the loop on your hook. So now I'm at the center of my chain 5, and I'm going to begin the rest of my instructions. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to single crochet 3 times around my chain 5. So I insert my hook all the way through the hole, not working into any loops. Pull up my loop, yarn over, pull through both. Again, reach through. Grab your yarn, pull it back up, yarn over, pull through. I'm doing that three times. Then I'm gonna chain eight. So I'm gonna just one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight. And with all types of these types of motifs where you have lots of chains, make your chains nice and tight. Don't make them very open and loopy because you want good structure once you block your snowflake. So keep your loops the same size as your shaft. So I'll show you that when we chain down so that your once you starch this or whatever you're going to use for blocking it will hold its shape better and it won't be real loopy and weird looking. So I did eight chains. Now, I'm going to slip stitch in the fourth chain from my hook. So this is going to create a little point for my snowflake. So I work backwards. Don't count the loop on your hook. Go one, two, oops, one, two, three, and four. I'm going to insert my hook just in that back loop is good enough. Then I'm going to yarn over, pull through, and pull through that loop. So it creates a point for me, because if I just chained and then connected it over here, it would be like more of a rounded edge. By putting that slip stitch in, I get more of a pointed top for each of the points of my snowflake. So that's why I put that slip stitch there. Now I'm going to chain 4 back down, because we have chain 4 here. So we kind of technically did chain four. Chain 4 slip stitch, now we're going to chain 4 back down. So when I keep my loops the same size as my shaft, I hold on with my fingers for my tension so it's the same size. I yarn over, I pull through, and then I push my loop to my shaft again. So you'll notice when I do my chains, I always push back down so that they're all the same size. So that they're nice and tight and not loopy. Now, we're just going to repeat everything that we've just done. We're going to go to our next chain 5 space, and we're going to start single crocheting. So you see that I already have the loop on. Just reach through, yarn over, pull up a loop, and start single crocheting. I hold on to my chain to kind of keep my loops where they're supposed to be. If I don't, they might kind of wiggle around. So just hold on to them to keep them in place while you're making that first single crochet. Again, I chain 8, then I'm going to slip stitch. In the fourth, one, two, three, four, chain four, then I'm going to my next chain five space. So without holding my chain, if I start doing my single crochet, it also gives me kind of a bigger loop. Like if I just hold on to it, it keeps my loop the same size as everything, because I want all of these stitches to be really tight. I want these single crochets to be nice and tight against the previous round, so that my... Once I block this, it's going to be nice and stiff, and it's not going to flop around. So try to keep your stitches as tight as possible if you're working with a bigger yarn than thread. If you use thread, it's stiff on its own, so you shouldn't have a problem. And if you're making this as a motif for, like, a beanie, and want to use worsted for big Christmas ornaments, or for package decorations... Make your stitches nice and tight. I'm going to keep on going around in the same fashion, and I'll meet up with you at the end to show you how to join and fasten off. Okay, I'm doing my last slip stitch in chain four. Now I'm back to the beginning of my round. So to join my round, I'm going to do a slip stitch in the first single crochet that I made. So just go to those three single crochets, the first one, just go under both loops, grab your yarn, pull it through, and pull through the loop on your hook. Then to fasten off, I always do a chain and pull it long. And after we weave in our ends, we're done! Not really. See how yucky this looks? We have to block this. If you're using thread, it might be passable, but most likely you're gonna need to block this to make it look good and look like a snowflake, otherwise it looks like a furry little... So, I'm going to go weave in my ends, grab my blocking mat and my spray starch, and I'll show you how to block this out. Okay, I've got my ends woven in and now I'm ready to block this out. So I have just a little foam mat that's easy to pin to, and I'm going to start by pinning I'm starting the center of the snowflake. I don't want to stick it right in the center because I want to be able to pull it out, so I'm going to put it through a couple of the stitches in the center because I want to be able to pull all of my points out nice and tight. So I'm going to use a ton of pins to block wherever you pull a point out once you starch this or steam it or sugar starch, however you like to block. I would use something in the starch family for the snowflakes though, because you want them to be stiff as well as the correct shape, or at least if you want them stiff, use starch, if you don't want them stiff, if you want it just pretty to put onto a hat, then you can just go ahead and steam or wet block it, but if you're going to hang it on your Christmas tree, use some starch. So now that I've got all of the tops of the double crochets done, now I'm going to start with my points. So I'm gonna pull my point out nice and tight and get through the yarn, don't stick it in the middle. Hold the yarn down and pull it out to where you want your yarn to point out. And you can adjust it until you like how it looks. So pin it out, look at it, make sure it's symmetrical. Because once you block it, you're going to have to re-wet it if you want to redo it. I'm going to do these points and I'll come back and show you the spray starch. Okay, I finished pinning everything out. I like how it looks. Kind of if you really want to get into it, you can get the ruler out and make sure your points are the same, you know, distance apart and all that, but this is good enough for me for right now. Now I'm going to spray starch it. So I use this Niagara spray starch, it's a heavy-duty spray starch, and I just soak my, shake it up a little bit, get all over, all over the snowflake, hold on one second, so that it will soak in and get it completely wet. So, push on it to get it soaked in really well. And then I'm just going to let this sit until it is completely dry. I like these foam mats because all this extra starch starts to wash it off when I'm done. And the starch, they're all in there. I'm going to let it sit probably for the rest of the day to be able to dry completely out. Then I'll come back when it's dry and I'm going to hit it and show you how stiff it is. It's been a day. I've let the snowflake completely dry. My eye feels nice and stiff, so I'll... I'm good to unpin now. As you see as I unpin my poor stain, here I pin them. Using the blocking and spray starching helps to make the snowflake nice and stiff. When I finish unpinning and I hold it up, you'll see that it's holding its shape just by spraying it with spray starch. It soaked through to the other side so both sides are nice and stiff so I can put it on my tree or put it on a package, put it on a beanie. String it up, whatever I want to do. But that is your motif of the month, and thank you for watching.