shiny crochet creations

Could you suggest me how to make small crochet creations shiny (other than using hair spray because they are to contain food...)?

Is the only option to use silky yarn?

 

You could paint/soak them with PVA glue and ensure they dried in the shape you wanted. This would effectively plasticise them. If you wanted a lighter effect, you could try brushing lightly with a diluted version. The best stuff is proper Marvin /PVA from craft or DIY shops, not school white glue.

What have you been making that needs this treatment?

 

You can buy thin metallic yarn which you can knit/crochet in with ordinary yarn to give a little bit of sparkle. Something like this, perhaps:-

 

It is going to be small baskets with some sweets or similar inside. I am tempted now to use some silky yarn...

 

Take a look here (Texere Yarns: Metalic Knitting Yarns), they seem to do a range of metalic yarns but they're not cheap, a quick glance suggests at least £3 for 50g, but they do do one which is equivalent to 4ply. Not sure what Hobbycraft do, might be worth a look?

In addition you might find this helpful (About Crochet Stiffeners and Recipes from Homemade to online MBA) giving as it does, a whole list of stiffeners for crochet work.

Failing that there a number of things you could try ..... as Madahhlia suggests using PVA (diluted 50/50 with water) would work. Don't buy it from a craft shop, go to Wickes, B&Q, Homebase or even Wilko. If you're going down this route, you'd perhaps be better off making your baskets around a 'former' of some sort (a tin, glass, wooden block, etc.,), cover the former with cling film - to stop the baskets sticking - and leave, upside down, until completely dry before removing the film from the inside of the basket (or you could leave the cling film to act as a 'lining').

There are a few other suggestions if you're using a shiny/metallic yarn or thread.

1 - use as fine a hook as you can get away with for the thickness of yarn (the 'correct' tension counts for nothing when making these sort of items!) so I'd be tempted to stick to dc. throughout, (at most htr.) rather than tr or dtr. If you do this, you'll find that although you may use more thread, the item will naturally be stiffer.

2 - what I have done in the past, is make a 'former' (in your case a basket) from some thin card - two layers of cereal packet glued together works quite well - and encase it within a crocheted body. The trouble with this method is that you need to crochet two baskets (one for the inside as well as one for the outside) and then join the two pieces together, probably around the top. This is a bit of a 'faff', means making two of everything and that can work out expensive.

My final suggestion would be - if you can buy small wicker (or similar suitable containers) - crochet a 'cover' to fit around the outside and secure the finished work to the top of the basket with normal sewing thread.

Hope this helps.