Crocheted Christmas Ornaments

Every year I crochet a number of Christmas ornaments to sell at an event held by a local club that I belong to. This year I made 36 crocheted snowflakes and 6 crocheted tea light holders.

Since these ornaments are made with crochet cotton thread, they need to be “stiffened” so that they hold their shape. In the past, I used a fabric stiffener I bought at JoAnn’s. Now, this stiffener is somewhat expensive. It’s priced at around $10 for a 16 oz bottle – that’s the best price I found online when I searched this morning. Sixteen ounces would be enough for this batch of ornaments – but using this product significantly adds to the cost of making these items. I have also tried using a spray starch to stiffen crocheted items, but it really didn’t give me the amount of stiffness needed for the ornaments.

A better solution is to make my own using cornstarch. Yes, you can use the cornstarch you have in your kitchen cabinet to make a solution of stiffener that works well on cotton crocheted items. Cornstarch costs roughly 15 cents per tablespoon, so it is cheaper to use.

Here’s the formula: Use 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to 1 cup of water. Whisk the cornstarch in the water to blend it well and bring the solution to a boil while whisking continuously. Then set it aside and let it cool. Once it has cooled, you can dip each item in the solution and soak it a bit – then squeeze out the excess and pin the item to shape. Let it dry thoroughly.

Related Post

Socks for CharlotteSocks for Charlotte

Charlotte's Baby SocksI knit two little pairs of socks for Charlotte shortly after she was born. In fact, while I was visiting at the hospital, my DS traced one of Charlotte’s footprints so that I could take it home a make a pair of socks for her little feet.

Her little foot measured 3 inches from the tip of her big toe to her heel. I used some sock yarn I had on hand in a variegated shades of pink and a size US 1 (2.25 mm) 32 inch long circular. The socks were knit using Magic Loop, two at a time. I knit them from the cuff down. These little socks knit up quickly and I made a second pair using another skein of yarn that was a light pink color. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the second pair. DIL reported that these socks stayed on her feet when most do not.

I wrote up the pattern for these socks. Each pair takes only 10 g of sock yarn, so it would be a great way to use up leftover yarn from your bigger sock knitting projects. 🙂
Here is the link to the pattern: Newborn Size Socks

New Pattern: Knitted Turban Style Chemo HatNew Pattern: Knitted Turban Style Chemo Hat

To all the women that read this post: When was the last time you had a mammogram? Are you overdue? I was one of those women that put off getting my mammograms done — and when I was diagnosed, I had just had my two years overdue mammogram done. Please ladies, if you are over due for your mammogram, schedule it and get it done as soon as possible.


October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I am celebrating my seventh year as a breast cancer survivor. I feel blessed and very lucky that I am cancer-free.

In honor of my being cancer-free for seven years, I am making a pattern for a turban style chemo hat that I created available on my website. I created this pattern because I have knit a number of different patterns for chemo hats, but I wanted something that was a little more stylish for an older woman.

I knit this hat using one of my favorite cotton yarns: Knit Picks Comfy Sport Weight Yarn. Chemo hats knit in cotton are washable and are very soft — they feel good on the head that is sensitive due to chemo and provide a degree of warmth as well.

The pattern is here: Turban Style Chemo Hat.
Please feel free to knit this hat for any loved one going through this experience with my blessings.

Pattern: Re-created Vintage Crochet Motif — “Mom’s Motif”Pattern: Re-created Vintage Crochet Motif — “Mom’s Motif”

In my previous blog post, “Vintage Crochet: A Motif from My Mother”, I described how I had found this motif tucked inside a ball of crochet thread from my Mom’s stash and how I had re-created it.

I have finished writing up the pattern and it is available here: Mom’s Motif. I have checked this pattern for accuracy several times. However, if you download it and use it, please let me know if you have any questions or find anything amiss.

There’s a little more to the story of this motif. After studying on it for a time, I decided to check and see if this was the motif my Mom used to crochet me a tablecloth. And sure enough, it was. Here’s a picture of the tablecloth:
Tablecloth made from Mom's Motif

It’s lovely, isn’t it? Here’s a close-up of the tablecloth:
Close-up of tablecloth

I am planning on taking the added step of recreating the patterning used to join the motifs into a single piece. This may take awhile. But I promise I will post it when I’m done.