Category: Crochet

Crocheted Christmas OrnamentsCrocheted Christmas Ornaments

November 17, 2024November 17, 2024 | LindyBeirLindyBeir | 0 Comment | 11:03 am

Three patterns of snowflakes for Christmas 2024
Two patterns of crocheted tea light holders for 2024 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.

Homemade Stiffener

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.

Read MoreRead More

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

June 6, 2011June 6, 2011 | LindyBeirLindyBeir | 3 Comments | 9:00 am

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.

Read MoreRead More

Lack of New PostsLack of New Posts

June 4, 2011June 4, 2011 | LindyBeirLindyBeir | 0 Comment | 9:45 pm

I apologize to those who read my little blog — I have not posted for some time due to computer issues.

About a month ago, my DH and I both got new HP Desktops with Windows 7 as the operating system. After making all the necessary file transfers, I got up and running and thought things were just dandy. The new desktop was much faster and I loved my much larger monitor (great for these old eyes!). Then, about two weeks ago, funky random things started happening as I was using my new PC. Things like the screen just freezing up — which caused me to go to Task Manager and force the “not responding” program to close. Over the next several days, this went to happening at weird random and unpredictable intervals to happening almost every time I went on to the Internet. And then, it also started happening when I was in other programs — including the game Solitare and even Word. And — it was getting so that Task Manager couldn’t shut down the “not responding” program — now, when it happened the entire PC locked up — and I do mean LOCKED UP! The only way out was to hold down the Power Button until the machine shut down….yep, a hard shut down.

So, last weekend I started researching this little problem. I had to use my iPad — ’cause my HP certainly wasn’t going to let me do any surfing on it. And I discovered that this is a KNOWN problem with Windows 7. I found lots of threads about this little issue — one of which had been going on in a forum for over two years. From this research, I gleaned a few helpful suggestions that I thought I might try. Now this surfing took me most of Saturday afternoon over the Memorial Day holiday. So Sunday, I decided to check out HP Technical Support and see if there was anything new or helpful about this problem. And you know what? HP had a technical article on this problem — along with a whole series of steps to follow to determine how best to fix this little issue.

Now — before anybody goes there — the first thing I did when this little problem popped up was to run my virus scanning software — I did a full scan of my hard drive. As we all know, a virus is the most likely cause of problems with your computer. My computer scan came up clean. No viruses.

So, what was the cause? It was most likely either a program I had recently installed or an update to Windows that had been automatically installed. The solution? Well, HP has a utility called “System Restore” that allows you to go back and “restore” your system to a point before that update — i.e. a time before the problem started happening. Full instructions for how to do this were given in the article. BUT — before I went forward with this, I decided to back up my files — and this took me most of Sunday afternoon. Then Monday I was able to go ahead and do the System Restore. I discovered that there had been an update to Windows just before I started experiencing my issue. So I took my system back to the point just before that update. Viola! No more freezing or locking up! Whew! problem solved.

Not sure what conclusion to draw from all of this. Clearly it is a known issue that can randomly occur with Windows 7 — but it doesn’t appear to be something that Microsoft has addressed at this point — even though it apparently has been happening to Windows 7 users since 2009. I find it interesting that HP has a solution for the problem in the form of a utility that allows you to restore the system back to a point before the problem started to happen.

Anyway — that’s my tale of woe. Now that I have a working PC, I can get to work and actually write a new post about my new vintage crochet pattern. Stop back in a couple of days — I should have the pattern ready and available.

Read MoreRead More

Vintage Crochet: A Motif from My MotherVintage Crochet: A Motif from My Mother

April 30, 2011April 30, 2011 | LindyBeirLindyBeir | 0 Comment | 1:34 pm

I inherited my mother’s stash of crochet thread several years ago. The stash filled two large plastic bins with lids and I simply placed the bins in with the rest of my stash. From time to time, I have pulled a ball of thread from one of the bins, but I never really inventoried the contents.

Recently, my MIL asked me to help a woman who had contacted her looking for help in locating off-white crochet thread that might match what she had. The woman was trying to finish up a crochet project that had been started by her mother, but not finished. So, I went to the stash and pulled out all of the off-white crochet thread (about 10 balls). I gave the woman all of thread and it looked like there were several balls that closely matched her project.

While I was doing pulling the balls from the stash, I picked up a ball of green crochet thread and noticed that there was something tucked inside the ball…

I pulled it out and found this:

Pretty, isn’t it? Now why my mother tucked this little doily into that ball of crochet, I have no idea — but it was a pleasant surprise. I am guessing about how old this bit of crochet is — the ball of crochet thread it was tucked into is at least 20 years old, so it’s at least that old and I suspect that the pattern it was made from is even older.

So, I set about trying to recreate this motif. Mom’s is on the left and mine is on the right. It’s pretty close, but I am redoing it a couple of times more to make certain I have the stitches correct. I will be publishing the pattern when I’m finished, so check back here in a week or two.

Read MoreRead More