Hello, and welcome to week two of the Holiday Craft-Along. I was delighted to see such a good response to our launch post last week. Thanks for joining us! Are you ready to get crafty? This week, the theme is snow. For many of us, it's not really Christmas unless it's a white Christmas, so what better way to start getting ready for the holidays than to stitch up a flurry of snowflakes? We received a copy of 100 Snowflakes to Crochet by Caitlin Sainio a few weeks ago, and spent weeks poring over the pages, admiring the intricate, lacy creations. Lucky for us, the publisher, St. Martin's, agreed to share an excerpt with Canadian Living readers! This simple snowflake is suitable for beginners, so I thought it might be a good one for us to tackle this week. Believe it or not, all you need to know how to do is chain (ch), slip stitch (sl st) and single crochet (sc).

Lake effect snowflake

Materials: Size 5/1.9 mm crochet hook; #10 crochet cotton; scissors Finished diameter: 2-1/2 in. (64 mm) Thread required: 5 yd (4.6 m) Foundation ring: ch 6; join with sl st in first ch. Rnd 1: ch 1 (counts as sc). 11 sc in ring; join with sl st in initial ch 1. Rnd 2: ch 1 (counts as sc). *ch 3. sc in next sc. Repeat from * 10 times. ch 3. Join with sl st in initial ch 1. Rnd 3: sl st in next ch 3 space. ch 1 (counts as sc), and sc in same ch 3 space. 2 sc in each of the 11 remaining ch 3 spaces. Join with sl st in initial ch 1. Rnd 4: ch 1 (counts as sc). *ch 4. sc in next 2 sc. ch 8, and join with sl st in 3rd ch from hook to form picot. ch 5.** sc in next 2 sc. Repeat from * 4 times, and from * to ** once more. sc in next sc. Join with sl st in initial ch 1. Finish off; weave in ends. To finish: Soak snowflake in water or liquid starch (depending on how stiff you want your finished snowflake to be) and then block it by pinning out the ends, using the photo above for reference. Want something more challenging? Check out our snowflake slideshow for intermediate and advanced snowflake instructions. And don't forget the festive extras!

• This week's Tested-Til-Perfect holiday recipe: Sparkly Snowflake Cookies
• Our festive song suggestion: Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrel singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside," from our favourite holiday movie, Elf
• Your chance to win: post a photo of your crocheted snowflake in the comments to win a copy of  100 Snowflakes to Crochet. (Don't forget to make sure you leave your email address, and to post your photo by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Nov 15.)

I got a bit of a head start – I'm halfway to a snowflake already! Believe me – it's easy. My first ever crochet project was the Calm Cowl, so if I can do it, so can you! Good luck, and don't forget to post photos of your finished snowflakes in the comments. Have a great weekend!