Crochet book – Page 2 – The Crochet Architect

March 27, 2014March 27, 2014

New Doily Book Review

You may ask: What is a doily? And how do you pronounce it? Well, it’s pronounced “doy lee” or “doi´lē” (definitely NOT dolly!). Think of it this way: “doy” rhymes with “toy” and “Lee” is a man’s name. According to Webster’s dictionary, a doily is “any small, ornamental mat, especially one of embroidery or lace”. Of course, many forms of crochet are lacy, so it stands to reason that many doilies are made in crochet! Doilies are used most often to protect wooden surfaces from scratches and moisture.

I LOVE doilies! I have hundreds, if not thousands, of doily patterns and I still enjoy purchasing new doily patterns to add to my collection. I love to crochet doilies and they make wonderful gifts, too! I have a box of finished, blocked doilies that I can turn to when I need a gift for someone, especially if they love doilies, too. I’ve learned a lot about crocheting and designing through making crochet doilies. I’m a “threadie” at heart, so I love crocheting almost anything with crochet thread (especially cotton crochet thread because it blocks so nicely).

I love the different shapes and stitches that are in doilies. Each one is unique, almost like snowflakes. Doilies come in circles, squares, rectangles, ovals, hexagons, triangles, octagons, or just about any shape. Some doilies are done in Filet crochet, while others are done in Bruges Lace, Irish crochet or regular crochet. Some doilies have lots of textural stitches or aremade in multiple layers. Some are one solid color, while others are made with many colors (and I definitely LOVE colors!). I love anything crocheted that has pineapples in it, too! Two of my favorite doily designers are Patricia Kristoffersen, who designs doilies with textural stitches, and Kathryn White, who designs doilies in Irish crochet. You can see a lot of Patricia’s work on her Ravelry page. Kathryn White has a Raverly page and a website where you can see her designs. I won several books from each of these talented designers!

A few weeks ago, I got a new doily book. It’s called “A Baker’s Dozen Easy Crochet Doilies”. As everyone knows, a Baker’s Dozen is 13. This book has 13 different doilies in it (and one of them is mine; from the October 2013 issue of Crochet World magazine). There are round, octagonal and rectangular doilies in this book. Four of them are filet doilies, one is Irish crochet, one has an added layer in the center, 6 are regular crochet (3 with pineapples) and mine is worked over bone rings (it’s actually a table mat, but it’s in the shape of a doily!). All of these designs are beginner or easy skill levels, so there’s nothing too difficult to make in this book. Here’s the front cover and a few of my favorite doilies in the book:

A Baker's Dozen Easy Crochet Doilies book cover — A Baker’s Dozen Easy Crochet Doilies book cover

Aren’t these doilies pretty? To see all the doilies in this book, visit Annie’s website. This book retails for $9.95 in both print and digital formats. With 13 doilies in the book, that makes each doily pattern less than a dollar!

Happy crocheting (and crocheting doilies!),

Susan

February 21, 2014April 1, 2014

Book Review: Tunisian Crochet Baby Blankets by Sharon Silverman

There are so many wonderful crochet techniques that I enjoy and Tunisian Crochet is one of them. It’s a technique that yields a wonderful fabric that is similar to knitting. With Tunisian Crochet, you add loops to the hook and then work them off. It’s fun and relaxing to do!

I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Sharon Silverman, yet, but I’ve enjoyed her Tunisian crochet designs and books for many years. You can read all about her and see her designs on her website here and on her Ravelry page here. Sharon has a new Tunisian book called “Tunisian Crochet Baby Blankets”, published by Leisure Arts, that I’d like to review for you. Here’s the front cover of Sharon’s book:

Tunisian Crochet Baby Blankets front cover

This fabulous book has 8 baby blanket designs, each worked in various Tunisian Crochet stitches. There are 4 “easy” blankets, 3 “intermediate” blankets and 1 “intermediate plus” blanket. You’ll find lots of instructions and diagrams teaching you how to do these Tunisian stitches in the book, if you’re unfamiliar with some of them. Also, Leisure Arts has videos on their website showing how to work the stitches within each pattern of this book. You can find the videos for this book here. The book has a little video camera symbol printed next to each section of the pattern that includes an online video, so if you’re uncertain about that stitch, just watch the online video. It’s almost like having your own personal crochet teacher right there with you! Online videos are fabulous and I’m so glad that Leisure Arts has starting including them in their new books.

Here are photos of some of my favorite Tunisian blankets in this book:

This is “Bright Stands” and is done with color changes, which I think look fabulous in Tunisian crochet because the stitches are nice and square, not distorted as they are in some other methods of crochet color changes. The instructions in the book show you how to do the color changes for this afghan. I absolutely LOVE the geometric design that Sharon has used in this afghan!

This is “Basket Weave Blocks” and is done with 2 types of Tunisian stitches, which gives it that wonderful basket weave texture!

This is “Bubbling Bobbles”. I’ve never done bobbles in Tunisian crochet, so I’m going to have to give this one a try!

This is “Color Waves”. As you can tell, it’s done in ripples. I’ve never done ripples in Tunisian crochet, either, so this is another one I’m going to try out in my “spare” time!

These are just 4 of the Tunisian baby afghans in this book. To see all of the afghans in the book, check out this page on Ravelry. Here’s the link for this book on the Leisure Arts website. It’s available in both printed book (for $9.99) and in e-book (for $7.99) formats. And it’s also available on Amazon.com in print, as well as for Kindle.

If you’ve never done Tunisian Crochet before, I hope you’ll give it a try with this wonderful book. And if you’re looking to learn more Tunisian Crochet stitches, you’ll find plenty of them to learn in this fabulous book!

Happy crocheting (and Tunisian crocheting),

Susan

January 21, 2014January 20, 2014

And the winner is…

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

January 17, 2014April 1, 2014

Book Review: Crochet Wraps Every Which Way by Tammy Hildebrand

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.

Crochet Wraps Every Which Way front cover

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

January 11, 2014June 15, 2014

Irish Crochet Book Review & Giveaway

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:

Kathy's Irish motif appliques — Kathy’s Irish motif appliques

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:

Susan & Kathy at CGOA Conference in 2013

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:

: Irish crochet roses

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

January 3, 2014January 3, 2014

Book Reviews: One Crochet Book and One Knitting Book

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!!!

Colorful Tunisian Afghans to Crochet book

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?

A Playful Palette of 10 Knitted Accessories book

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

December 28, 2013November 25, 2020

Stiffening Crocheted Snowflakes

Many years ago, I crocheted some snowflakes for my Christmas tree. But, true to my procrastinating nature (aka: other things were more important to do, so this got pushed to the bottom of the list), I waited until last week to stiffen these crochet snowflakes. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t always procrastinate. But I find myself doing the crocheting of projects quite easily, while the finishing of many projects takes me a lot longer to warm up to doing! Are you the same way? Also, I don’t relish the idea of getting the stiffening solution all over my hands! I suppose I could always wear rubber gloves, but where’s the fun in that?

Last week, I was inspired to stiffen these snowflakes because of a crochet design that I just finished for a major crochet magazine (the design is still a secret, but you’ll find out in about 6 months what it is when the magazine comes out).

I’d guess that not too many people have stiffened crochet snowflakes or know how to do it, so I decided to write a tutorial on how to stiffen them. You can find it right here on my “Tutorials” page. So if you’d like to learn how to stiffen snowflakes, then please take a look at the tutorial.

Update (11/25/20): I have a YouTube video for learning to stiffen crochet snowflakes. You can find that video here.

Anyway, here’s a photo of the 9 snowflakes I stiffened to use on next year’s Christmas tree (I already had this year’s tree decorated, so I didn’t want to change it!):

Aren’t they pretty? I crocheted them from the Leisure Arts book called “White Christmas in Thread Crochet” by Kathryn A. Clark, a very talented crochet designer. This book includes 54 projects from snowflakes to icicles to tree toppers to tree skirts and garland. It’s a great book! Here’s a photo of the front cover of this book:

I’ve had this book for many years (it was published in 2001). My copy isn’t that pretty anymore because I’ve taken it with me to many places, including little league baseball games when my sons were much younger. Since I love thread crochet, these snowflakes were a natural project for me to make!

If you enjoy working with crochet thread, why not give some crocheted snowflakes a try! You’ll be glad you did and your Christmas tree will look fabulous!!! Or if you’re looking for a unique gift, these snowflakes make fabulous gifts!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

August 28, 2013

We Have a Winner!

Complete Guide to Symbol Crochet book front cover

Today is the day to announce the winner of the autographed copy of the book that Rita and I produced, “Complete Guide to Symbol Crochet”. Can we have a drum roll, please? And the winner is……….Kathleen Stuart! Congratulations, Kathleen. I’ll e-mail you today to get your mailing address.

Thank you to everyone who entered this giveaway. Stay tuned for another crochet giveaway in the near future. If you’d like to purchase a copy of this book (and it isn’t available in a craft store near you), you can purchase it directly from Leisure Arts here.

Now for a totally different topic. I’d like to wish my youngest son, Nick, a Happy 21st Birthday today! You are a wonderful son! I hope you have a fantastic day today.

Okay, back to crochet, which is the topic of this blog! I’m almost ready to release patterns for 6 sets of Wiggly Crochet Hot Pads & Coasters. The patterns are 90% done, so stay tuned for those within the next week. If you’re a fan of Wiggly Crochet, like me, then you’ll enjoy these patterns.

I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day and enjoy lots of time with your family/friends, as well as many hours of relaxing crochet time!

Happy crocheting,

Susan