Winter Garland :: Ta-dah!

I've been wanting to make a winter garland for a few years now, something pretty to hang on my mantel in January once the colour and sparkle of Christmas has been packed away. In past years I've really enjoyed making seasonal wreaths and garlands, and you might remember me making my first garland for Autumn, and then one for Spring too....here are the links to those projects if you fancy taking a look....

((AUTUMN GARLAND)) and ((SPRING GARLAND))

I had a good idea of the colour palette I wanted to use, inspired by the soft, muted, frosty shades of this cold season. You can see my inspiration photos in the collage above - winter skies, frosty leaves, snowberries, pretty hellebore flowers and winter flowering cherry blossom. 

I picked out ten shades of Stylecraft Special DK for my Winter Garland :

Pale Rose : Powder Pink : Pistachio : Meadow : Lincoln 

Duck Egg : Parma Violet : Hint of Silver : Cream : White

These colours look exceptionally pretty together and make me want to sigh with pleasure because they're so calm and easy on the eye. There is definitely a hint of Spring in those colours, but with a cool, wintry undertone that makes it a great colour palette for January-March. I think it's definitely more spring-like than I'd first envisaged, but honestly, I'm absolutely fine with that!

A little note about all the pattern details :

Most of the patterns I used for this garland already exist as part of previous projects, but I did make some tweaks and alterations along the way. Rather than trying to explain it all in this post, I created a separate pattern page which is listed over in my left hand sidebar so that all the pattern info is held in one easy to find location. I just thought it would be easier that way, in case any of you have an urge to make your own garland now or in the future.

Here is the link to the pattern page >>

WINTER GARLAND PATTERNS

I had a clear idea of the kind of things I wanted to make for my garland and the first thing to fly off my hook was a flurry of winter blossom. These little flowers are very quick and easy to make and I used two shades of pink as well as cream. Here where I live, we have quite a few trees in the neighbourhood that flower right in the middle of winter, so I'm used to seeing these delicate flowers as early as January.

As soon as I started thinking about a winter garland, I knew that hellebores had to be included. I took the above photo a few weeks ago in the supermarket of all places, they had some wonderful hellebore plants on sale this year.

I used Cream and one of Stylecraft's lovely new neutral shades "Hint of Silver" to make my hellebores, inspired by the ones I'd seen in the shops. I combined Cream and Pistachio yarn to make the stamens in the centre.

I had lots of creative fun trying out my new watercolour pencils, using them to add a little extra colour and detail to the petals. 

As I've made hellebores before, I already have a full tutorial for the pattern ((HERE)), which includes guidance on how I make the stamens. 

I think they turned out beautifully!

Next up were some wintry leaves - I couldn't think of any specific leaves I wanted to make so I decided to use an existing pattern. I did end up changing the edging so that they look ever so slightly spiky/frosty. I've detailed the changes I made on the pattern page.

I used six different colours to make the leaves, and I think to be honest if I was to make them again, I would probably leave out the light green Pistachio to keep the palette more soft and muted.

More leaves, this time some delicate ferns in Lincoln green which I decided to combine with white and pink winter berries. A bit of artistic license at play here as I have no clue exactly what I was thinking when I came up with this idea - I just thought it would look pretty! Haha! 

The ferns already existed as a pattern from a previous project, but I made them much shorter than the original design. Again, you can find the pattern alterations on the garland page ((HERE))

They're a bit fiddly, because the whole thing is crocheted with chains and slip stitches, but I really love the look of them and think they are worth the faff.

The winter berries were also rather fiddly to make, but because they're so small they take no time at all really. I made 24 of them in total (each fern leaf has 3 berries attached)...

....and think they look quite cute. Perhaps I should have made the leaves in Hint of Silver to make them look more wintry? Ah, but the soft Lincoln green really looks like the colour of frosty grass to me, so that was my thinking at the time.

I made all these pieces slowly here and there over the course of about a month - I think the first blossoms were made in the middle of February, and I finished the last pieces yesterday. It's been such a lovely thing to work on, either sat quietly at home, or at the café with friends, slowly creating my little pile of flowers and leaves. It's just the kind of gentle creativity which I find incredibly satisfying.

I also loved having a playing with it all too - this kind of faffery and photography is soooooooo much fun!

I'll show you all the pieces laid out in order now, so you can get a measure of how many individual bits I made...

....what do you think? Isn't that just so beautifully satisfying to look at?!

Starting at the top ::

4 Hellebore flowers

16 blossom flowers

8 fern leaves, with 24 berries

16 winter leaves

That's 68 individual pieces of crochet !!!! SixTy EiGhT!! 

In the last week or so as I was finishing up the crochet, I started to have a play to see how these individual bits would work as a garland. My fireplace is quite a wide one, and I hang my garlands in four "swags" - this makes it a bit easier to visualise the garland as I can focus on designing one swag, then repeat it four times. You can see me working it out in the above photo, using the hellebore as a centre focal point.

There you go - all laid out in order and ready to join, how exciting!!

On the winter garland pattern page, I explain in more detail how I crochet the chain to join all the little bits together. The hardest thing is working out the spacing, it took me three goes to get it right so that the garland fit my fireplace (I made 6 chains in between each piece to achieve the right length).

The finished garland measures 180cm.

The joining process is very easy and surprisingly speedy. After spending near on a month creating all those delicate little pieces, the joining took me less than an hour. Making my chain spacers, then slip stitching through each little piece, one after the other......

.....until the first quarter was suddenly joined.

I thought you might appreciate seeing my very professional photographic studio (!), it's all very homespun here, well of course it is. Nothing fancy, just an old desk top propped on the arms of a chair, and me with my camera jigging about trying to get it all done while the morning light was good.

Half way through now......

....and then suddenly just like that the last piece is joined.

Sixty-eight itty little bits of crochet all chained together and the garland is finally finished.

Well actually, there was one last thing to do....

I remembered at the last minute that I'd meant to add a little bit of colour to the blossom flowers and had completely forgotten. No worries though, it was easy enough to do it at the end and I'm so pleased with how it all came together......

........I mean, just look how beautiful it is............

..............Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love love love love love it. I LOVE it SO MUCH!!

I could not wait to hang it, and you better believe that within a hot minute of darning in the last end, my winter garland was right there on the mantel.

You can see what I was meaning when I described the four swags to you - I use tiny clear plastic Command hooks to hang my garlands, the sort that stick on without harming the surface underneath.

I have to say, it's so nice to have a garland hanging here again. My mantel has been empty since Christmas and I've missed not having some decorative hooky to cheer up the dark wood.

I'm so in love with it, and it was most definitely worth the time and effort to make something that I know will give me pleasure every winter for many years to come.

Well, you know what's coming next, don't you??????

↑↑ Here is my Spring garland (I'll hang this one up in April I think)

↑↑ And this is my Autumn garland which goes up in September when we reach the Autumn Equinox.

And winter is now covered.

What's missing??? Only my favourite season of all - SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, of course I'm already pondering on what to include in a summer garland. The trouble is, I could probably cover six mantels with all of my favourite summer flowers, there are just so many to choose from. Should be fun?!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed today's little ta-dah moment, I'm so grateful for the top notch encouragement you always give me with these creative projects of mine. It's lovely to have you to cheer me on, thank you!

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ps here is the link again to the pattern page for this project, it's in my alphabetical list of patterns over on the left if you need to find it in future.

((WINTER GARLAND PATTERN PAGE))

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Janet]

Your garlands are beautiful. I’m more of a paper crafter, but would love to learn how to crochet. First things first, lol….. basic steps. One day, I aspire to create this. Thank you for all the fabulous photos, too.

[Linda Wise]

Hello, i love the beautiful crochet garlands. I would like to subscribe to your site but the subscribe button at the top of this page goes elsewhere. Can you email me a link to subscribe? Email to [email protected].

Thank you
Linda Wise

[BAKG]

VERY GOOD

[Clare]

Wow...love, love, love this. So pretty and subtle.

[Kimmy]

I love the pastel colors of your latest garland. SO pretty! I would like to know how you made those little "berries".

[Gillian McM]

Oh this is so wonderful! So far I've made two hellebores, six leaves, six ferns, six bobbles, nine tiny flowers, I'm working away in delight, and just waiting for Hint of Silver to come from England so I can finish up. SO grateful to you, Lucy, for this giant dose of happiness!

[Kelpad]

Lucy everything about this garland is just gorgeous - I’m going to do it as my Easter garland ( I’m in Australia )💚 Thankyou

[Anne]

This is so lovely, reading about it makes it sound easy to do. Your crochet work and writing about it is inspiring. Thank you. I look forward to reading about what’s next.

[Carine]

Hi Lucy,

Since I saw your Winter Garland I ‘m thinking of what to write… but I ‘m kinda speechless. It is so beautiful, a sort of fairy tale and that combination of colours... ah...
Very obviously made with lots of love.

Warm greetings from the Vulkan Eifel,
Carine

[Beverley]

Absolutely beautiful winter garland Lucy. It looks lovely on your mantel. My fingers are itching to give it a go but I just need to finish some of my current projects first. Thank you for your generosity in sharing this design with us xx

[rosemarie giusso]

I very rarely comment on blogs, but enjoy reading yours very much. I just have to compliment you on the lovely garland you have just completed. It's so beautiful, just like a necklace. Very well done. Ro (N.W. Italy)

[Daphne]

Love your designs Lucy . Do you allow people to make & sell them ?

[gina in alabama]

What,no snowdrops? Please find some lovely home for them too!

[Bārbel]

Hi Lucy, I only discovered your blog a few months ago and it has become a little ritual reading it while sitting with a cup of tea in my favourite place. It is such a pleasure.
I am more of a knitter really, but you have encouraged me to pick up my crochet hooks again at 64 haha!I think the last time I crocheted was when I was about 10 years old on a holiday with my Grandma who was an avid crocheter. So it has been a while. I love your Winter Garland it perfectly depicts the season with its delicate colours.
Thank you for cheering up my days and sharing your wonderful work so generously. Bärbel x

[Cheri]

So very lovely ~ the flowers, the leaves, the berries, the soft colors, the design, your photos, just everything about this project! I love every aspect of it. Thank you for freely sharing your creative talent with us. Beautiful work!

[Juanita]

I absolutely LOVE this garland. The colour palette is beautiful (and I think the Pistachio green is perfect with it, giving just the tiniest hint of contrast). Thank you for your inspiring and colourful posts, I do enjoy each and every one of them.

[Helen Mathey-Horn]

Lovely! (As usual) Summer will have to have some pennants in the bath house colors, yes?

[Sue Floyd]

Thanks so much Lucy. Such a wonderful garland! You really are an inspiration, & I'm one of many people so happy that you share your gift with us!
Happy spring to you and yours!
Sue

[Kelly]

What happened to the little snowdrop’s? Did I miss something? Didn’t they make the cut?

[cindy huxtable]

Your are my inspiration. I taught myself to crochet because I loved your blankets so much. Thank you.

[Vicky]

I never thought of adding water colour pencil to yarn...what a wonderful idea and such a beautiful garland too.

[back you]

finally got! what i am looking for

[Gaye Brodie]

Hello Lucy,
I haven't followed your blog for a few weeks as I have just moved and everything is in disarray!! We have had an awful summer here in New South Wales Australia, floods and endless rain. I am sad to leave summer behind (my favourite season) so I was very very happy to see your winter garland. It is absolutely beautiful and I look forward to making it for winter. Thank you so much for Attic24, as a self taught crochet person your tutorials are so easy to follow and very encouraging for someone like me. Thank you again.
Gaye

[Simon]

I love the display photos of your new garland, it's so pretty! The colours work really well together, but how different they look against the darker wood of your mantle?! It'll definitely bring some winter colour into the colder,greyer months of the year!

[Susan]

I've enjoyed reading this post so much after a very sleepless night. You are ever so crafty & clever with colour. Ah, Spring for you and Autumn on its way for us here down under, so maybe I should think about doing your Autumn garland to wile away some cooler nights. Thanks so much for sharing, take care & hugs.