"building crochet designs one stitch at a time"
I’m pleased to announce the winner of Kathryn White’s book, “The Go-To Book for Irish Crochet Motifs”. Congratulations to Kathylovescrochet! You’re the big winner. I’ll e-mail you today to arrange to send your autographed copy of the book this week.
Thank you all for your comments/entries and please stay tuned for another crochet giveaway soon.
Happy crocheting,
Susan
I’m honored to review the first crochet book done by my good friend, Tammy Hildebrand today. Tammy’s name and crochet designs have been gracing the pages of crochet magazines and books for many years, but this is Tammy’s first book with ALL of the projects designed by Tammy herself. You’ve probably seen some of Tammy’s designs in Crochet!, Interweave Crochet, Crochet 1-2-3 and Crochet World magazines. Many times, Tammy’s designs have graced the cover of these magazines, too! To see Tammy’s published designs, visit her Ravelry page. Tammy is a wonderful crochet garment designer who I’ve admired for years! She is also the Vice President on the CGOA Board of Directors and has served on the Professional Development Committee of CGOA for many years.
Anyway, back to Tammy’s new book, “Crochet Wraps Every Which Way”. This is a great book with 18 patterns for wraps, ponchos, shawls and stoles in 6 techniques: hairpin lace, broomstick lace, Tunisian crochet, double-ended crochet, motifs and traditional crochet. There are 3 designs/projects for each of these 6 techniques: 1 design for each of these skill levels: easy, intermediate and experienced. So you can pick a project based on your skill level, making the book relevant to almost all crocheters! And there is even a “how-to” section in the back of the book with step-by-step instructions and photos to help you learn the new techniques that appeal to you!
Tammy has pushed the envelope with many of these cutting-edge designs. She even works some of these techniques in the round that are traditionally worked in rows! How cool is that? I’m in awe of Tammy’s creativeness! Here are some of my favorite projects in the book:
The “Perfect Pineapples” shawl is essentially a big, round doily with the pineapple pattern throughout, made with yarn. I love the way you can fold it over wherever you want to make it the length you like (and the folded portion forms a collar!).
The “Purple Passion” wrap is also made with pineapples. This wrap is made with Lion Brand Silk Mohair yarn, which is one of my new favorite yarns! It’s a dream to work with and it’s light-as-a-feather!
The “Chica Mala” shawl looks like it’s made with regular motifs, but it’s made with broomstick lace motifs, worked in the round! I had to do a double-take on this shawl! I have to give this a try soon when I have some spare time.
I love the colors that Tammy has chosen for these wraps. Of course, you can choose different colors for the wraps you make from these patterns to coordinate with your wardrobe or the recipient’s wardrobe, if the project will be a gift for someone else!
I know how to do all of these crochet techniques, but I’m not very proficient with some of them! I’d like to learn more about them and practice my skills with them (like hairpin lace and broomstick lace). I took a hairpin lace class at last year’s CGOA Conference in Charlotte, NC from Jennifer Hansen, who is a genius with hairpin lace, broomstick lace and Tunisian! That was a lot of fun! I’ve enjoyed Tunisian crochet for many years and I love crocheted motifs! What are your favorite techniques out of the 6 techniques in this book? Which ones would you like to learn?
If you’d like to purchase this fabulous book and learn some new crochet techniques or expand on the ones you already know, the book is available at Amazon.com here. It is also available at many local craft stores and book stores nationwide. Tammy’s book has 104 pages and retails for $19.95 in the US ($22.95 in Canada). That’s just over $1 per pattern!
I hope you’ll take a look at Tammy’s new book and learn a new crochet technique in 2014!
Happy crocheting!
Susan
I am thrilled to be taking part in Kathryn White’s blog tour for her new book, “The Go-To Book for Irish Crochet Motifs”! Kathryn (Kathy) is a good friend of mine and an extremely talented designer. She is an expert with a steel crochet hook and cotton crochet thread! I’ve loved her designs for years and met her at the CGOA Conference in Sept. 2011 in Greensboro, NC. I think it was Kathy’s first CGOA conference, but I’d been to many CGOA Conferences before that one. I didn’t get a good photo of Kathy at that conference, but I did get a photo of the Irish crochet motifs that she made and appliqued to the sweater she was wearing when we met. Here it is for you to see:
These are beautiful Irish crochet pieces and they show up so nicely on that sweater (or perhaps it was a sweatshirt).
Here is a photo of Kathy and me from another CGOA Conference last year:
You can find Kathy on Facebook, as well as on her website here. And you can follow the rest of the stops on her Irish Crochet blog tour on her blog here.
Now on to her fabulous Irish Crochet book! Here’s the front and back covers of the book:
As the front cover says, there are over 100 motifs, edgings and insertions in this book, along with fill-in lace and tips on putting it all together. The motifs include various types of flowers, leaves and fill-in motifs. There are also dangles and overlays in this book. There are many motifs to choose from and combine into your very own Irish crochet masterpiece!!!
If you’re not familiar with Irish crochet, it’s a fabulous technique of making motifs (typically with crochet thread), many with something called a “padding cord” or a “padded ring” to give more dimension to the pieces (Kathy explains the padding cord and padded rings in this book, along with giving hints to make them easier). The motifs are then joined together with “fill-in lace” to make a large piece or project. Many of the old Irish crochet patterns are difficult to understand, but Kathy has made them easy to understand with modern crochet terms and updated Irish crochet patterns in her new book. There are motifs for every skill level in this book, as well. And if you don’t want to use a padding cord or padded ring, Kathy gives updated patterns for making the same motifs without them.
Here are photos of some of the pieces in the book:
As a thread crochet lover, I absolutely LOVE this book! As one of Kathy’s friends, I actually saw part of the book before it was published. And I got to try out a part of the book last year, too. Here’s my fill-in lace sampler from last year:
I learned a lot while making this sampler piece, which is in Kathy’s book. I learned how to use padding cord (successfully) and how to work the fill-in lace between the motifs (successfully, too!). Kathy is a patient teacher and she’s very thorough, too! I love that in a crochet designer/teacher.
You can see more of Kathy’s Irish Crochet book and purchase it as a printed book or in digital format on the Annie’s website here. The book has 96 pages and retails for $14.95 in the US ($17.95 in Canada). It’s a fabulous book and I can’t wait to make more of the motifs in it. I also want to try joining more motifs with more of the fill-in lace methods in this book. Now if I just had more time or some clones to do my work so I could sit and crochet more, which is what many of us would love to do!!!
To celebrate Kathy’s new Irish Crochet book, I’m giving away an autographed copy to one very lucky winner. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this blog post about Irish crochet or crochet in general (or tell me what crochet technique is your favorite). You must live in the US to qualify, since shipping the book to another country is very expensive. I’ll pick the lucky winner on Jan. 21, so you’ll have plenty of time to enter! Good luck everyone!
Happy crocheting (and Irish crocheting),
Susan
I recently got 2 new crochet/knitting books from Annie’s. I love getting new patterns for crochet and knitting projects! There’s nothing like a new project! If you called me a “pattern junkie”, I think you’d hit the nail right on the head!!!
The first book is “Colorful Tunisian Afghans to Crochet” by Glenda Winkleman. This book includes 6 patterns for Tunisian crochet afghans with cross-stitches worked on the surface to create the designs. These are really nice afghans! I love the construction of them. Five out of the six afghans are done in either strips or squares of Tunisian crochet. Each strip or square is edged before joining them together. The sixth afghan is done in a large center section that appears to be 2 separate sections, but it’s one big piece with bobbles separating the solid center from the edges where the cross-stitches are worked. Here’s that afghan:
Isn’t it pretty? And here are a few of the other afghans in this book:
The patterns in this book are rated as an “easy” skill level, but they may be closer to “intermediate”, in my opinion! Some of the special stitches used in various afghans in the book are: bobbles, popcorns, crossed sc and picots). Each pattern comes with written instructions and charts for the cross-stitch placement. If you’ve never done cross-stitch on Tunisan crochet before, it’s really easy! The Tunisian crochet makes a “grid” of squares that serve as the background for the cross-stitches. The book even includes a diagram in each pattern showing how to work cross-stitches.
Each of the afghan squares or panels is crocheted with one color of yarn, making the pieces work up quickly. Then you cross-stitch the design onto the squares or panels per the charts. If you’ve ever done stamped or counted cross-stitch on fabric, you already know how to do the cross-stitch portion of these afghans. And if you’ve done Tunisian crochet before, you already know how to do the background of the afghans! If you don’t know how to do Tunisian crochet and you want to learn, Annie’s has a lot of books, videos and materials for doing Tunisian crochet. You can see their assortment of Tunisian items here. Kim Guzman has designed a lot of projects in Tunisian crochet. She has several online classes with Annie’s, too. To read about her class called “Learn to Tunisian Crochet”, click here.
You can see all of the afghans in this book at the Annie’s website here. The book retails for $9.95 in the US and $11.95 in Canada. So with 6 patterns in this book, that comes out to be $1.67 for each pattern in the US ($2.00 each in Canada)!
If you enjoy doing Tunisian crochet (or want to learn), why not add this book to your crochet library?
The second book I got is “A Playful Palette of 10 Knitted Accessories” by Tabetha Hedrick. As the name implies, this is a knitting book. For those of you who are bi-stitchual (you can crochet AND knit), this is a great book. There are 10 projects, ranging from small, quick projects to larger, longer projects. There’s a headband, bracelet, scarf, cowl, hat (in 2 versions), fingerless mitts, scarflette, cape and socks in 2 lengths in this book. All of the projects are made with 1-4 skeins of Koigu Yarn: either Koigu Premium Merino (KPM) or Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino (KPPPM). These are both fingering/sock-weight yarns in 100% merino wool. I’ve never tried this yarn, but it looks really pretty in the book, so I’ll have to give it a try sometime very soon!
Here are a few photos from this book:
You can see all of the projects in this knitting book here.
The skill levels for the projects in this book range from beginner to intermediate. I like having this range of skill levels, since I’m a fairly new knitter with lots to learn! I really like the looks of the lacy socks in this book. I never thought I’d knit or crochet socks before, but I might have to take the plunge sometime soon!!!
This knitting book has 48 pages and retails for $14.95 in the US ($17.95 in Canada). With 10 patterns in the book, each pattern costs just $1.50 in the US ($1.80 each in Canada)!
If you enjoy knitting accessories, you may want to add this book to your knitting library!
Happy crocheting (and knitting),
Susan
