Bluebird Christmas Ornament Pattern by 

The New Berlin Co.  CCS Kit 30814

(DMC floss)

I've been cleaning my craft room and finding so many UFO projects and never started projects.   I have a real sense of urgency in getting these things going!   I have a stack of little cross stitch Christmas kits I must have bought on clearance or something, but chose one and I'm off!

Sept 30: start kit.   Made plenty of counting errors, fortunately, it is small.  

Oct 4:  Finished late night on and washed and laid out on a towel.   Used sticky mountain board that came with kit and framed next morning.

My first cro-tatted snowflake pattern: "It's Snowing!"

So, I had this #3 reg cotton crochet thread and a 2mm hook. This would not produce a very declicate snowflake, but I was thinking it could be seen from the street, as a snowflake on the window, attached with a clear sucker cup. I started one from a pattern, BUT, this thread is hard for me, I really prefer to use slippery thread, and also the pattern called for very large rings, which makes it harder to pull thru SO MANY stitches, with the hook totally loaded. So, I pulled it out and decided to just see if I could make something up. I don't know if it wilhl work or not, but I guess that is how most patterns come about, you just keep trying something else if it doesn't work.

I have no trouble with cro-tat rings that are attached as in the doily I have a video for, with the top picot joining the last ring. But most snowflakes work the other way, with the ring shooting up from the current edge, and the top picot facing out. When I do this, I seem to end up with my rings rotating backward, but I have started trying a different way (this won't make sense until you actually have the problem, and then it will).

I am finding success at crocheting my chain, then turn it over to do the ring, then back over to make the next chain. I am checking each ring after the chain connection to make sure the fronts are all on the same side. So far, I have:

ch 8, slp st together to form ring

12 sc around DO NOT TIE OFF.

rnd 2: ch 3, rw(fold back to right), ring of 3-3-3-3,

rw(fold forward to left), ch 3

Join to prev chain: skp 1 sc and slp st in next

DO NOT TIE OFF.

rnd 3: *ch 5, slp st to picot, ch 5, sl st to picot. rw

R: 3ds, sm picot, lg picot, sm picot, rw,

slp st to same picot.

ch 5, slp to picot, ch 5, skp sc, slp to next sc

*repeat on all rings, till there are 6 finished.

To finish: Join with beginning chain in sc and bring thread thru loop to form small knot, then work thread into the sc around center. Picture 4 is just now finished, not blocked.

*If this resembles any other snowflake, I worked with just my thread and cro-tat hook, not referring to any other pattern or picture.

BOOK: A Flurry of Snowflakes (cro-tat) Snowflake No. 3.

The body of this snowflake is all crocheted, so on the second round I decided to swap out to a reg crochet hook, as this was not ring and chain, ring and chain, just crocheting and a little harder with no comfortable place to hold for a long time, on the cro-tat hook. I will say that for some odd reason, the mm size of cro-tat hooks does not match the sizes of crochet hooks. Since my cro-tat hook is a 1mm, I searched for a size 13/1mm crochet hook - nothing alike in size. Comparing sizes, I settled on a size 8 steel hook, switching to the cro-tat hook in the last round when rings and chains would finally come together for true cro-tatting.   I used Hobby Lobby's Artiste Egyptian Cotton Thread with 1mm cro-tat hook and size 8/1.50mm crochet hook.

I took about 2 hours to make, and about 2 hours to get a pic that didn't have something stupid showing up in it! I painted the back with mod podge glossy, to stiffen it.

If you don't already know it, there's a group on facebook called Ice Drop Addicts, and have plenty of pics and patterns in the files.

Shuttle tatted with Lizbeth size 20 thread, color 151 Angel's Love.   So,  I finally got a chance to make another ice drop... I think this is my fouth one. I had lofty dreams of making the pink fudge drop, but things kept going wrong. First I strung my beads, then as I was tatting the 2nd row, I realized that I had actually decided to change my ice drop center and now those beads were not going to work. Then as I go along, I realize that the thread is disappearing way faster than I thought it would, and I was going to run out. Lastly, I had a knot in my thread, that made me wonder if I was going to have to cut.

So, I just decided to do something that would use less shuttle thread, and leave off the beads, but then realized I could get in some different beads by connecting the chains to the picots with a bead in there. Better than nothing. I ended up having to take the last bit off the shuttle and finger tat it, and was lucky enough that I got the little knot in a place that was not a slip to close spot, and tatted it in! Well, this is my 'I winged it again' ice drop!

This is Patrizia Pirocca’s tatted Angel pattern, which I adapted into cro-tatting.   I know the tatted version will be more delicate looking, but I just wanted to do it now!    It took me about an hour to do the angel, and then I painted on Mod Podge glossy on each side, letting it dry before doing the other side.   It kinda gives it a 'glass' like texture.   She came out pretty well, and I'm happy I was able to get something done so quickly, as my time is very busy right now.   I'm using a 1.5mm prym cro-tat hook, that I got  from: http://www.ds9designs.com/crochethooks.shtml    - bottom of page where you see the 3 black handle ones, and DMC Petra 5 in white/blanc.    I got the bead on a string of beads separated by little silver 'caps' at Walmart beading section, (if your walmart has a craft section)

This is a real busy time of fall yard clean-up - especially when you let it go in the summer!   But I've finally gotten a little time to make another cro-tat snowflake.    Although many of the cro-tat books can be found on ebay, this one is like a needle in a haystack, A Flurry of Snowflakes:

I made snowflake no 1 with 1mm prym cro-tat hook & Hobby Lobby size 10 Artiste cotton thread in white porcelain.

I have to say I don't like the crochet picots, which seem to just look like lumps, compared to tatting picots. BUT! I did this one and there was a little error in the pattern, which made a little divot in the round that the first set of rings go on.

Long explanation:  The error is that it has you start off with slipping 3 st to get to the place for the first ring.   But then it has you do a chain 3 all the rest of the way around, and I kinda thought it would end that way, and make up the difference.   But when I got around to the end of the round, I couldn't go up to the ring with a ch 3, because I had to start the large outer chain from that point in between the rings. 
SHORT EXPLANATION:   Don't start with slp 3, but a ch 3, then into the middle of the next loop for the first ring.

Cro-Tat Ring Tips Snowflake

I made this Cro-tat Ring Tips Snowflake from MaryM's free patterns. This one is: 
http://www.reocities.com/mountainhome1999/ringtips.htm and I used Aunt Lydia's Fashion #3 thread, with the Prym size 2mm hook I just got. It is mostly crochet, with just the rings on the tips being tatting. It was harder for me because this is not slinky thread, but since I have some experience doing this, I was able to make it work. When I put the first ring on, I thought it was too big looking and nearly ripped it out and just did a 3 picot ring. But, I thought her picture looked good and I just needed to follow what she did, and it turned out great at that size, afterall.

Blue Varigated Snowflake by MaryM

Blue Varigated Snowflake by MaryM Link (scroll down): http://www.reocities.com/mountainhome1999/bluevarigatedsnowflake.htm

Let me start by saying that the first round with inward facing rings and chains around the outside was very simple to get right. However, the next round where I had to join chains, created a 'backward' feeling, which I was able to solve eventually.

So, I made the first one, the blue one, from Thread Art Perle Cotton 8, color 519, with a 1mm Prym cro-tat hook. The thread is 2 ply and flimsy. I would be easy to pull apart, but with cro-tatting, you have to keep a little looser so you can pull the hook thru the stitches. The thread makes a limp project, as the thread has no body. I notice that my chains are al twisted at the connections.

So, I made another one, to see if I could find a way to join without twisted chains. My next attempt was DMC Petra size 3. color Blanc. I used the Annie’s Attic cro-tat hook (about a 6) This size helped me to scrutinize the chains better, and I worked out the problem. But on finishing, discovered that I had managed to twist the beginning chains, and that resulted in every ring going on the wrong side, with the picot bands on the opposite side as the ring’s picot bands in the center round. If you look at the bottom ring, at 6:00, you can see the chain going up on the left is twisted - the culprit, the first ring and so all are on backward. So.. I made a 3rd attempt to resolve the rings on the backside, and make sure why they are on the backside.

 I tried to use Aunt Lydia, but I just hate to try to cro-tat with thread that is not slippery, I really need to have slippery thread that lets the hook slide thru, so….

 For my 3rd attempt I chose Hobby Lobby’s Artiste size 10, 102 Porcelain. Used the Prym 1mm cro-tat hook with it. It is the smaller white one, at the bottom of picture. I managed to get all the rings face up, and the connections made with no twist! WOOT!

Cro-tat Christmas Ornaments

Oh dear!   I bought a Cro-tat Christmas Ornament package from Enfy's Rainbow Valley Crochet and started making them, leaving my little mat (doily 6) unfinished!   I feel very naughty about that, and hope I do the right thing and get it done, as the devil is keeping track of all my UFOs :(    But these are so fun to make, I wanted to do them so much!   Sure they are not as delicate as straight tatting, but there is something to be said for ease and I like how the change between needle tatting and crocheting is easy on sore hands & thumbs. Also, it doesn't take a week to make each one! Well, I'm not giving up tatting, but I'm going to have fun with these cro-tatted ornaments.

Unless other hook is stated, I used the Annie's Attic cro-hook.
Oct 19, 2017 I made the "Stocking" using:
DMC pearl Cotton size 5, blanc & DMC Petra size 5, color 5666 (red)

Oct 22 Angel: DMC Petra size 3, B5200

Oct 23 Star: DMC Petra size 3, B5200   I sprayed it with Stiffen Quik and I don't know if it's user error, like I was too close maybe, but it made my stitches not be as visible and it left little fuzzys everywhere.   I also sprinkled with opalescent glitter which is beautiful, but camera barely picks up their sparkles.   I had a little hole where I didn't close the last part right and so I got another little piece of thread to close it, and was very surprised how white the new thread was when compared to the star, which the Stiffen Quik had apparently caused to lose its snow white color.  Still very happy with it. :)