Popcorn and picots

[suzidemars]

I'm really loving my snowflakes. :hook Today's turned out great, except for the last round. There's a little popcorn on top, with a picot on top of that. Here's my directions....

4 dc in next ch 3 sp, drop loop from last dc, insert into 1st dc, pull through. Got that.

ch 6, slip stitch in 6th ch from hook and in popcorn. Is this 2 separate slip stitches or 1? My guess is 1. However, the top of the popcorn looks like such a jumble of knots I don't know where to stick my hook thru it. The picots ended up looking way off to the left of the popcorn they are supposed to be on top of.

Also I asked this question in the bead crochet forum but no bites. When I stiffen them, if I use a glue / water mix, won't the glue cloud up my pretty, shiny little beads? Should I buy the actual fabric stiffner for these? I've heard that just brushes off when dry. I've never stiffened anything before and I have about 15 that are ready, with and without beads. I'm so excited to try it!!!! :cheer

[Katy]

I am truely no expert, so will just give an opinion, and hopefully you'll get more since there are lots of folks here that probably do know the answer.
For the picot, usually you would chain x stitches, and then slip into the last front of the last stitch before the chain along with the verticle thread of that stitch. Your directions do sound like they will throw the picot over to the left. You may want to try slipping into the top of the popcorn instead of the 6th chain from the hook. Guess you could play with it until yo have a pretty picot in the spot I want it.
I stiffen with spray starch. I have done crochet with beads and didn't notice any cloudy effect, but they were pretty small. Hopefully you'll get an answer here from someone who does a lot of crochet work with beading.
I am anxious to see your snow flakes.

[frogrockr]

Also I asked this question in the bead crochet forum but no bites. When I stiffen them, if I use a glue / water mix, won't the glue cloud up my pretty, shiny little beads? Should I buy the actual fabric stiffner for these? I've heard that just brushes off when dry. I've never stiffened anything before and I have about 15 that are ready, with and without beads. I'm so excited to try it!!!! :cheer
Hi Suzi!

The glue water mix - if it dries clear wont be a problem for your beads!
the actual commercial fabric stiffener works well too.

If you check my blog - I make thread angels and stiffen them using a 2:1 Glue/water mix and then once two coats have thoroughly dried, spray over with clear spray paint a couple of times which brings up a lovely shine...

Hope that helps a little bit!
Manda

[jleinhauser]

Picots always seem to lean to the left a bit. At the top of your popcorn,
you should only have the tops of 4 dc sts and one sl st, not a lot of
knots. I believe you would work just one sl st to fasten the picot, going into the ch st and into the sl st which closed the popcorn, and which should be pretty visible.

Jean L.

[suzidemars]

It's not really knots I guess, I'm a self taught crocheter and I suppose not really sure what I'm looking at! I've tried again and they look a little better, I guess I'm frustrating myself more by thinking mine should look perfect like the ones in the pics on the front of the book!!! Someday they will I'm sure. Thanks everyone!