Wind Spinner - 18 August 2024

I’ve been watching videos on how to make wind spinners for a while. These are hanging ornaments that are made in such a way that the curly crocheted strips move in spiral motion in the breeze or wind.

I had a couple hours spare waiting in a car the other day so I decided to pack the materials I’d need. I managed to find two suitable colours: the brown for the centre of the flower and the yellow was for the petals. I didn’t actually have other colours. The yellow is a bit pale but this was a first try so I thought I'd just use that and make a better one next time :

_{Acrylic yarn.}

I’d set my eyes on a type of wind spinner that includes a sunflower and the spinner itself has petals. This was perhaps a bit ambitious but I like a challenge.

The instructions said I needed a 3.5 mm crochet hook and so I started but very quickly decided to change to a smaller hook because I felt the result was not that nice looking : too loose and thick.

After the two rounds of brown I changed to the petals successfully. The photo above shows you the smaller crochet hook too. The instructions were very clear and the petals were progressing well.

Very soon the 12-petal sunflower emerged and I felt happy with the result but I did feel it was a bit pale and it needed some green leaves.

For the next part of this project I made a chain of 70. I initially was planning to just chain 40 but that looked too short. After the long chain and the first row the increases began. These are crucial to give that curly effect to the long piece of crochet.

I did find the constant increases a bit tiring but persevered and finished it. I then changed the colour of the yarn and moved to the start of the yellow petals.

The petal stage was repetitive and a bit tiring; it seemed a never ending process. In fact I couldn’t complete everything during my two hour wait. I finished it at home and was glad it was over.

When I got to this point I wondered whether it should have all been ‘a bit bigger’, more brown rows? It looked a bit small.

_{My finished wind spinner in two locations.}

Here’s the video I used to learn how to make this type of windspinner :

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The video is very well explained and to the point. The You tuber has many other types of spinner in her channel that I'll be considering for a future project. She also offers tips on how to stiffen and waterproof the yarn which had never occurred to me but she shows how the rain affects the yarn when soaking wet and what product can be used to prevent that.

Although the making process was repetitive, I totally recommend making one of these wind spinners. There are many other free designs available online ( I only checked You Tube). I think the stitch is very simple and as long as you can keep up with the necessary increases you can make something fun for your window or garden. I will certainly be making some more.

Thank you for reading !