Tiny Crochet Stars and Snowflakes

So the holiday season is almost here. For those of us who like to make their holiday gifts, the game is on!

Inspiration
The Design Process
The Booklet

Inspiration

A few years ago, my single brother finally got a Christmas tree. You know, one of those tabletop trees. I might possibly be one of those people who’s made crochet ornaments for everyone, whether they wanted them or not.

But for this tree, I had a hard time finding patterns for ornaments small enough. The first ones I made for him were very simple, made with sport weight yarn. I thought they were pretty small — but they were still a bit big for that tree.

Small crochet ornaments. But not small enough. — Cute, right? But still… not right.

For sure, none of the lace stars or snowflakes I’d found were small enough. (At least, none that were being offered by someone who wasn’t violating any copyright.) And using thinner thread didn’t help much.

The Design Process

The solution? Guess what! (How did you know?) I designed my own patterns for tiny stars and snowflakes. By the time I did the first three stars, I could see that it was going well.

Except that Star 3 was not really finished in that photo. It went through a significant redesign after testers has issues with it. It now has 5 points, and lays more nicely. Hooray for testers!

And Finally, the New Booklet

And here it is, finally, after countless hours of “design and refine”, not to mention thorough testing, the booklet with all 12 ½ ornaments. (The half is because I ended up with 2 version of one of the snowflakes.)

OK, here it really is, on ravelry

The booklet includes meticulous written instructions as well as crochet charts and instructions and templates for blocking and stiffening.

Cover photo all ornaments against fir background.

Meanwhile, I have two free patterns available on ravelry — one for the simplest star, and one for the most complex snowflake, in case you’d like to try some for, well, free.

Tiny Star #1
Tiny Snowflake #1

Here’s a photo to give you a sense of the size of these ornaments. It includes the largest and smallest of the set.

Now that’s done, there are this year’s holiday projects for me. The fancy afghan for daughter #1 (no photo, since the actual design is supposed to be a surprise.) A scarf for daughter #2. (Seem unfair? Don’t worry. Daughter #2 already has a fancy afghan. Guess who made it?) For the single step-daughter, (guess what! How did you know?) Tiny stars and snowflakes for her first tree.