Lace snowflake jar - free crochet pattern for pretty fringed ribbon jar topper

I posted the photograph from my last blog entry in a couple of crochet forums to wish my friends there a Happy Christmas, and very flatteringly, I've been asked how I made the snowflake candle jar, so here are the details (really quick!) so you can do one yourself, there's still just about time to get one done! I'm sorry I don't have time to do a photo tutorial for it at the moment but I have tested the pattern again myself after I typed it  out to make sure it's accurate.

I made the snowflakes using Caitlin Sainio's book, 100 Snowflakes to Crochet. The instructions for the fringed lace ribbon jar topper and how to affix the snowflakes follows.

Materials

Small quantity of 3 ply linen in any colour you like (I used silver grey)

Clean and empty 360g Branston Pickle jar

12-18 inches thin ribbon in a colour of your choice

Silver coloured charm of your choice (optional)

2mm crochet hook

PVA glue

Tea light candle or LED artificial flicker candle

All instructions use UK crochet terms

Abbreviations

ch - chain

ss - slip stitch

st - stitch

tr - treble crochet

dc - double crochet

dtr - double treble

yoh - yarn over hook

Foundation

ch 56 for the 360g Branston Pickle jar, (for larger or smaller jars, you can adjust the size by adding or subtracting multiples of 8 to the foundation ch),
Use a ss into 1st ch to form a circle

Row 1

ch 3 (to count as 1st tr), 1 tr in each of next 2 ch, ch 1, *skip next ch, 1 tr in each of next 3 ch, ch 1, repeat from * to end, ss into top chain of the commencing ch 3

Row 2

Ss into top of next tr, ch 1, dc into same st, 5 ch * skip (1tr, 1 ch, 1 tr), dc into next tr, 5 ch, repeat from * all around, ss into commencing dc 

Row 3 

2 ss into 5 ch space, 1 ch, 1 dc into same 5ch space, *1 ch, 1dtr into next 5ch space, 1 ch, (1 dtr, 1 ch into same 5ch space) 4 times, 1 dc into next 5ch space, repeat from * all round, finishing with a ss into dc at commencement of row

Row 4

ss into 1ch space, ch 1, (dc into dtr, dc into 1ch space) twice, *ch 3, skip dtr, (dc into 1ch space, dc into dtr) twice, insert hook into next 1ch space, yoh, pull loop through (2 loops on hook), skip dc, insert hook into next 1ch space, yoh, pull loop through (3 loops on hook), yoh, pull loop through 3 loops (dc into dtr, dc into 1ch space) twice, repeat from * 5 times, ch 3, skip dtr, (dc into 1ch space, doc into dtr) twice, insert hook into 1ch space, yoh, pull loop through (2 loops on hook), insert hook into commencing ch, yoh, pull loop through (3 loops on hook), yoh, pull loop through 3 loops, ss into dc, fasten off. 

Weave in ends, dampen slightly and block, leaving until completely dry.

Thread ribbon through gaps in the first row, slip over top of jar, thread on your silver charm if using and tie ribbon into a bow.

Take snowflakes, put them right side down on a clean piece of paper, cover the back liberally with PVA glue, place carefully onto jar and leave to dry. The glue will become clear as it dries so this method works with any colour of snowflake. 

Add the candle to your jar, sit back and admire!

Uh-oh! It's back already ...

Bead creep. This is a term first coined, I think, by Judith Johnston in her blog. I recognised all the symptoms in myself and have adopted it. In a nutshell, the main symptom is that glass beads appear in little piles all over the house and hardly ever get tidied away. Before Christmas I had a big tidy up in readiness of the arrival of various relatives for the festive period. I found beads were all over the place:

• In the window sills
• Recently cleaned beads on the coffee table in front of the TV
• On the dressing table in the bedroom, absent mindedly put there when I meant to take them into the studio, but I went upstairs with them instead
• Lots of disorganised piles and trays of them on my jewellery making table
  

It took quite some time to tidy them all away, either into the big bead bottle where my fuglies, experiments and end of lines are or neatly temporarily strung and put into zip log bags in a tin for future use.

Fellow beadmakers, depending on their tidiness, may or may not contract bead creep at various times. I seem to have suffered pretty much all of 2009, went cold turkey (ha!) on 24 December but - as the photograph evidences - only managed to remain symptom free for a mere six days.

These beads are quite simple little things, various colours of transparent glass, rolled in a reduction frit and then subjected to a propane-rich flame has turned them into coppery beads that go really well with this handbag I bought from Mayhem in Cambridge during their summer sale. I very rarely use a hangbag, I tend to wear jeans pretty much all of the time and just use my pockets. However, I always liked fringed things and when I saw it in the window, it kind of spoke to me saying that if and when I do want to use a handbag, this is the one!

Anyway, I made the beads on 2.4mm mandrels rather than the usual 1.6mm which means the holes are just big enough to be threaded onto the fringe. I've only done a few to see if they go and I think they do - there's actually six on the bag but you can only see two! I'm going to need quite a lot more in order to make an impact so I plan to make a big batch and get lots threaded on there! I've made some with regular holes as well to make a matching pair of earrings.

In fact I wasn't planning on making any beads for several days as I earmarked this limbo time between Christmas and New Year for experimenting with PMC and enamelling. Unfortunately, one of the website orders I received before Christmas hasn't reached its destination and I am going to send out another pair of earrings to the unlucky lady (this is the first time one of my a UK packages has been lost by Royal Mail). I didn't have any more of the beads in stock and so I needed to make some more; rather than waste a kiln annealing cycle on just a handful of beads, I decided to make it more worthwhilst with the coppery ones. It's something I have been meaning to do since I bought the bag and now I've made a start, I'm thinking I might just get on with it tomorrow and leave the enamelling for now ... (beads are my first love after all!) :-)