A Winter Wreath….Finally Finished!

I’ve made 4 seasonal wreaths, so far. This is rather addicting, as is crochet in general. I made one for spring and summer, another one for the Fourth of July, one for the fall and finally one for the winter. The only wreath I specifically blogged about was the Fall wreath. Maybe as the seasons approach I’ll show you the other two. But who knows? I might make completely new ones by then.

I decided last fall to make one for the winter and even began working on it in early November. But unfortunately other crochet projects tended to push it aside and it laid around in a basket unfinished. Right from the start I had decided I didn’t want a wreath specifically for Christmas but instead wanted one with a winter theme that would fit throughout the whole season. Instead of reds and greens I wanted blues and whites with snowflakes and snowmen and that was about all I knew for sure.

Like so many creative projects I didn’t have all the specifics worked out, only the general colors and theme.  I’d get an idea, go for it, then decide against it, think of something else, and then have an idea that seemed perfect, decide what would compliment the idea, and add to it. It’s as if the wreath “became”, so to speak, before my eyes.

I looked around online for ideas and found inspiration aplenty. Of course Lucy of Attic 24 has always been my major inspiration when it comes to wreaths but she didn’t have a winter wreath when I first conceived of the idea for one of my own.

I used white and 4 different colors of blue, including a variegated blue, and single crocheted a strip to cover the styrofoam wreath. Once that was attached all I had to do was decorate it….easier said than done with so many ideas floating around in my head!

I made a snowflake garland and simply tacked it all around the outer edge. It worked perfectly, a garland of sixteen snowflakes fit exactly on the sixteen inch diameter wreath.  I couldn’t have planned that better if I had tried. After it was in place I added the white ball stems to one side and tacked it to several of the snowflakes to secure it.

I made 3 different sized snowmen all based on different patterns, tweaking along the way. Of course they each needed hats and scarves. The littlest one is wearing earmuffs. Must keep those ears warm after all!

I used safety eyes for both the eyes and the buttons down the front on each snowman but I glued them on rather than attaching them with the washers. Easy-peasy.  And since the snowmen aren’t toys I didn’t have to worry about the eyes being secure enough to be played with like amigurumi.

I crocheted a little bit of snow for the snowmen to stand in, a row of 16 “modified” popcorn stitches. The popcorns look like a line of snowballs at the feet of the snowmen (do snowmen have feet?) and they are worked with no spaces between them. I say “modified” popcorn stitches because I did them differently than a normal popcorn stitch. (This is a great tutorial for a regular popcorn stitch.) Instead of crocheting a foundation row I made my popcorns by simply chaining and then adding an extra slip stitch to close them. I’m afraid if I say any more I will thoroughly confuse you since I modified the correct popcorn stitch to suit my purposes. This stitch is tricky enough to explain without throwing in extra steps along the way. Perhaps I’ll do a picture tutorial one of these days if anyone is interested.

And by the way, this stitch works perfectly to make popcorn garlands for the Christmas tree.

I’m especially pleased with my little icicle-boy. I looked high and low for a crocheted pattern for an icicle-boy to no avail. I say icicle-boy rather than icicle-man (like snowman) because he just looks too young to be a man. He hasn’t quite grown up yet.

I added a little pile of snowballs behind icicle-boy.

So, I had to make it up as I went along. Icicle boys and carrots have a lot in common though, as far as their general shape goes, so I looked at carrot patterns for inspiration. It didn’t take me very long to get the general idea of how to shape it. Of course he needed a hat and scarf too, just like his friends the snowmen. An icicle-boy needs to stay warm too, after all!

Initially I gave him little arms but both of my daughters disapproved. No self respecting icicle boy would be seen in public with arms! So off they came. I’m thinking that little icicle people might make cute Christmas ornaments for next year … with different colored hats and scarves in different sizes, some icicle-boys and some icicle-girls. Yes, that could work very nicely for the grandchildren for next year!

I took notes as I crocheted the icicle-boy, and I hope to write up the pattern and post it down the road in case anyone is interested.

I wanted a banner of some sort for the top of the wreath and originally wanted it to say “winter” but try as I did I just couldn’t get the w-i-n-t-e-r letters to look right when I attempted to embroider them on the flags.  So I abandoned that idea and went with 5 snowball flags instead…individual modified popcorns attached to each flag.

As with my fall wreath, most of the pieces are pinned on. In fact the only thing sewn onto it is the snowflake garland and the white stems.

All in all I am very pleased with the wreath. It does make me smile! As I was admiring the little snowmen and icicle-boy it occurred to me that they needed names and so…from left to right, I’d like to properly introduce you to Fred, Malcolm, Herbert, and Eustace.

 

Sorry, but I just can’t help myself!

Yes, the winter wreath definitely does make me smile!