Crocheted Snowflakes

If you're a beginner, learn how to crochet before you start. While crocheting a scarf or vest might take a month, but you can complete a single flake in about an hour. Adorn your Christmas tree with these lacy beauties as the Victorians did, or use them in one of our projects, such as the snowflake garland or the frosty stockings. Add one to a gift bow, take a half dozen to a tree-trimming party, tie one to your sweater's zipper pull, or suspend a bunch from the ceiling to imitate a blizzard.

How to Stiffen Crocheted Snowflakes

Starch and block your snowflakes before hanging so that they hold their shape. Then give the house a cheery dusting with your delicate creations.

Thin yarn and small hooks create airy, delicate snowflakes. U.S. sizes 5 to 8 hooks are good for novices. Experienced needleworkers may use threads to size 20 or 30 and hooks to U.S. size 13 or 14. Try making a few fuzzy flakes with mohair or angora; it's more difficult, but the result is dazzling. As you crochet, the emerging design may look floppy or askew, but starching and blocking will turn the piece into a symmetrical marvel.

This pattern uses the single-crochet stitch in four rounds and calls for counting stitches.

Counting Stitches

As you follow the directions, the loop on the hook does not count as a stitch. The stitch just below it should be the first in your reckoning.

Key

sc = single crochet
sl st = slip stitch
ch = chain
rnd = round

Slip Stitch

The sl st is used to join a stitch that was just worked with another one. Insert the hook into a stitch that you want to join with another; catch the yarn, and draw it through all the loops on the hook.