Snowflake in a Bottle (Well...Ornament really)

Hey everyone!

I just posted a Christmas present that I came up with. I didn't get the idea from anywhere in particular, just worked with what I had on hand. This is the finished product:

Forgive the messy background but at least you can see the beads! This is actually a really simple project and doesn't really take all that long.

Here are my supplies:

Ok, so the plastic bag is the blocking mat for the snowflake. It's a piece of cardboard with a six pointed stencil drawn on it and then put in a ziploc.
Stiffy fabric stiffener.
The snowflake pattern book.
A couple of short Christmas ornament hangers and a clear plastic ornament. I got mine at the Christmas Tree Shoppe for $1 and you can open it up and take out that tinsel.

The ornament is about 12" around and originally I was going to make multiple motifs to wrap around it. Well, that didn't work out so well. However, I did think that the one motif that I made would fit inside the ball. The snowflake pattern I picked out was 3 1/2" across. The beads were an add-on idea and is not described in the book at all. I used size 10 crochet cotton and a size 7 steel hook.

Once the snowflake is done, and you've woven in all your ends, you'll want to soak it with water. Wring it out and drop in a solution of 1 part water, 3 parts fabric stiffener. If you used full strength, the finished snowflake wouldn't really be pliable and you might crease it rather than just bend it. Pin this to dry overnight on your blocking mat, aligning the points of the snowflake with the points of the stencil.

Once dry, go ahead and open up your ornament and discard that tinsel (who invented that crap anyway). Now, this is a little tricky, carefully, and gently roll up your snowflake so that you can get it through the opening at the top. Don't worry about losing it, it's only going inside the ball and you can easily reach it with your fingers. Let it drop inside, breathe, then get to flattening it out again. This is easily done by putting your fingers in there and pressing the snowflake against the sides of the ball.

After you've gotten the snowflake flattened back out again, use the short Christmas ornament hooks to hang it from the plastic at the top. Seen here in this picture is how I put the two hooks through the same whole but in different directions to get the snowflake to hang freely:

Now that the snowflake is hanging freely inside your ornament, pop the cover back on and voila! A beautiful ornament as a present or for your own tree!!

Let me know if you have questions and feel free to spread this around as much as you'd like!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays!

<3 kobuu="" p="">

Project #MakeMyQueue - An Update (Of sorts)

And you thought I was done. Or had forgotten about it...HAHAHA...

No no, I'm still working on this. Remember I started with 47 projects in my queue. I've added, deleted, switched, frogged and completed a LOT of them. This isn't the rundown post but it's a current count.

Finished projects since January 1: 45!
Holy crap! That's a lot. And I'm not done yet! If you do the math, that's one project every 8 days or so. Not really, but the average. In reality, some only took one day while others took 4 weeks. Even so, I'm applauding myself ::claps:: ok, maybe not really... LOl

Finished #MakeMyQueue projects: 29 (that were labelled as part of this project)
Frogged: 7
WIP: 6
Total: 42
Still to cast on.... well, none. If I get through those 6 WIP's, I'll be happy. Chances are that won't happen though. I'm optimistic but not stupid. Truth be told, I'm tired of Project #MakeMyQueue and I plan on just completing things as I want to.

Today I'm going through my queue, my WIP's and my stash. I've found a few other projects I didn't know I started and I want to start projects not even in my queue! Oi. This never ends. My "2014" queue is already getting too long...

I'm Calling this #NoComNov

Yes, I'm calling this No Commitment November. As in, I'm not doing #NaNoWriMo or #NaKniSweMo, or even #Movember or "No Shave November".

My November is NO. Haha.

Honestly though, I need to recover from CAL/KAL-tober and actually complete some of those things. I'm not committing to that though. I have other ideas, plans, things to do. Like find a job, relax, and knit. I want to actually enjoy waking up in the morning, going through a day without stress and learning to love myself again.

There is one thing that I'm REALLY looking forward to: not being angry.
Everyday I get up and drive more than an hour to work in morning traffic. It doesn't matter if I've had a fantastic night, or got enough sleep, or listen to Broadway and sing in the car. Inevitably, there will be either traffic or some idiot on the road that will sour my mood. From there, it's a quick roll down the hill. While the start of my commute was within the speed limit and cautious, the ending is usually speeding and trying to get off the roads at to the safety of the office. I'm usually grumpy when I first sit down and have little regard or care for the people around me.

The converse also happens on my ride home which can be even longer.

I'm tired of that. I'm tired of having to deal with the types of people on the road at that hour. And I'll admit that sometimes, I'm one of them. And I hate that about myself. There's no reason to drive like that since everyone has to get to work just like you do. There's no sense in "being first" because if it causes an accident in the process, you're either going to be dead or injured AND you're going to basically stop traffic for everyone else! How considerate.

I need the next few days to just be over. Then I need to wake up on the 8th, make breakfast for +Victor Woodroffe and relax.

"I have no closing so I'll just end this with a small bow." - George Carlin