Book review "Crochet - the complete step by step guide"

#crochet @dkbooks

I love crochet, but then you all knew that, didn't you? So it was hardly surprising that I spotted an advert for this book in Mollie Makes magazine # 37. I had bought the Mollie Makes magazine because writer, needlefelter and artist Gretel Parker featured on the cover and I was off to her workshop at Cinderhill Farm the next day.

The front cover image of this book is very memorable and eye catching and is what I remembered spotting in MM so kudos to the art editor, photographer and whoever made the throw most of all! I thought at the time that this looked a good book to add to my collection and that I might save up and get Crochet (or drop lots of hints before my upcoming birthday).

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I was sent a copy of Crochet to review along with the Small Spaces Big Ideas book I wrote about here



The DK website says of this book

Crochet is the go-to crochet compendium, with more than 80 crochet projects, from simple flower blankets to crocheted baby bonnets and chunky scarves. Crochet uses step-by-step techniques and photography to cover basic stitches, such as chain stitches and treble crochet, and includes helpful practice projects to build your confidence, before embarking on more adventurous and impressive crochet patterns. Beginner crocheters are clearly led through every stitch or if you are already familiar with knitting and other crafts you can pick up a great new skill quickly to create beautiful crochet projects, such as cute gifts, things to wear and items for the home. Crochet is the perfect guide for crocheters of all levels of ability.

Having had a good look through this book over the last couple of weeks and tried out a few of the stitches and ideas I can only conclude one thing - this book is excellent and DK are absolutely correct in what they say

I am a moderately experienced crocheter (some stitches at least) and there were loads of interesting ideas for me to try in this book. The how to pages are detailed and clear and I was able to learn some advanced stitches to try out, but if you needed to learn the basics it is all there with very clear illustrations. Patterns and charts are all explained as are the tools you need and different yarns to try.

I loved the pages about alternative yarns - as I am in the middle (still!) of a crochet rag rug it was great to see this included and the metal wire crochet had me dashing to sort through the Cupboard of Doom to find my stash of wire and seed beads.

There are lots of ideas for real, proper, useful things to make ( I loved this wrap!) 

and also different types of "granny squares" to try, not just the usual square but hexagons and suchlike.


 
as well as bags and rugs and sweaters and cushions and hats and ...oh so many lovely things!

In conclusion - if I were made to chose just only one book on Crochet to keep from all the ones I have, this would be it. I think it is really good, with wonderful illustrations and photographs and a very good contents list and index. 

I love it. 

Crochet

DK Publishing - Author
Publisher: DK
Hardback : 03 Feb 2014
£25.00

With thanks to Vivienne  at DK for sending me the books :) I did not get paid to write this post apart from having the book to keep.

New followers and the closing of The Crafty Compostwoman Blog

Hello and welcome to all my new followers

I know I have some new followers on Bloglovin but unfortunately  I do not know a way to work out who you are?  But be assured you are most welcome!

And I have a few new followers on my Google feed - thank you ! 

So a warm welcome all my new followers and please do comment if you like  - I do try to respond and am always keen to read your comments :)

And while on the subject of Google - despite my best efforts I cannot renew the subscription for the domain for The Crafty Compostwoman  blog and it will expire on 6th Feb 2014. When this happens I will lose the whole blog as it won't revert back to the free blogspot site.

So, I am going to start  posting the crafting stuff on here, The Compost Bin, again rather than keeping a separate blog for it. Sorry but I can't think how else to manage it!

I have exported all the posts ( and the lovely comments) over from The Crafty Compostwoman and hopefully all will work out ok.

I will just have to remember to wash my composty hands before starting on some crafting :)

And while I am talking about crafts, here is what I have been up to with the crochet hook over the last few days

Granny square throw progress

With all the rain stopping outdoor work, I have been busy crocheting :-)

The plan is to make a "patchwork quilt" style granny square throw - joining the 9 squares together then putting a boarder around the block - then repeating the process so I end up with blocks of 9 squares joined together. There will be diagonal solid colour squares coming in from each corner of the finished throw, a very intricate square at each corner  and a thick border around the whole thing.

 This is the first of the "9 patch" blocks, crocheted together. it needs more blocking but it is square, honest!



 These are more  9 squares waiting for me to join them together with the red yarn and add a pale green border around the block.

 These are some of the other squares I have made - the purple/pink squares are for another wip - the brown/gold ones will be used in the patchwork style throw but scattered around as accent squares rather than in one block of 9 squares. The more intricate red/gold/green square is one of the corner squares I mentioned.

I am aiming for a King size throw for our bed, but maybe will make a couple of smaller ones instead - I will see how it looks when I have a few more of the patches completed. The colours are shades of golds, browns, greens, crimson, primrose and fawn from the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino range (  love this yarn!)

I am planning on adding accent squares of solid colours as well.


I can make 3 or 4 squares an evening, while watching TV or listening to music/sitting by the fire. I weave  in the ends as I go and the biggest time taker is the matching up and slip stitching together so it looks neat and tidy. That takes me an evening to do and I have to concentrate on it, not watch TV!

I work with a 4 mm hook and each square measures 12 cm after 6 rounds.

I have just added in some more shades of Autumnal colours from the latest batch of Debbie Bliss yarn, Burnt Sienna, Fudge, Apple Green, Primrose and Butter  - all lovely toning shades and the effect, I think,  is very pleasing :)

I didn't make it to either of the crafting sessions this week as I was working at home, but I did get to visit a lovely Yarn, Patchwork etc shop in Ledbury called Bodkins which is a treat to visit, and is run by a lovely lady, so I guess I will be visiting Ledbury more often :)

Anyone else busy crafting due to the wet weather?

Rugs, rags, recycling and a new floor.

This week has been a very busy one for us here  at Compost Mansions. We are having a lot of work done outside as we are having an expanded and redesigned patio being built. I have been redesigning the garden for a long time now and finally I have some new beds to plant up and a whole load of plants I have grown to put into them.

The new kitchen floor is finished and looks lovely, and now the evenings are drawing in I have returned to some crafting at last :)

One of the things I have been doing is play with a small peg loom - I have made a start on a rug made from (again) unwanted cotton tee shirts  and I have also resurrected the rag yarn crochet rug I was working on at the start of the year.

I actually unwound a lot of it as I didn't like the colour scheme and am crocheting it again.  The plan is that this will be a rug for the cats to sleep on in the kitchen as the new terracotta tiles are a bit cold for them, otherwise.

Rugs are also on my mind for elsewhere in the house. Now that our lovely new bedroom has a wooden floor, I want to get a couple of smaller rugs to go with the large woollen rug which sits at the foot of the bed. I want warm comfortable rugs to stand on with bare feet when I get out of bed. I also want them to be woven from either wool or some other natural yarn.

I had a look around on line for traditional rugs for the home and found a company called mail order rugs. I love the fact that on their website you can select rugs by colour, yarn, shape or style. I was particularly taken by the colours of some of the rugs and got some great ideas for making my own.

As far as the rugs are concerned, I want them to be made from natural materials, probably wool. I would ideally like them to be washable or at least damp spongable ( the cats are always bringing us "gifts" and also have muddy paws even as far as the bedroom!) and I would like them to come from a supplier who doesn't exploit rug makers in other parts of the world ( often underpaid children) so I was pleased to see that mail order rugs say on their website

All our rugs are responsibly sourced using suppliers who understand our opposition to exploiting children in the rug industry.

There is a really good Rug Buying Guide on their website as well which is full of interesting info.

A couple of the modern rug designs  in particular caught my eye as ideas for a large quilt I want to make to go on our bed. This will be in shades of brown, gold, green and cream. I have dusted off my quilting tools and sorted out some lovely strips of fabric as well as cutting out a lot more strips. This is for a child quilt :)

 

So, as the nights draw in I return to my crafting :)

Crafty round up for March

This month I have

• crochet many granny squares - 30 in total to keep up with one a day
• sewed together fabric squares to make quilt
• pieced together the strips of squares to make the quilt top,
• part quilted the ( king sized) throw
• made two more crochet cotton dishclothes
• Carried out many sewing repair jobs both by hand and with machine.
• Painted a couple of small canvases with acrylics and been content with the result
• Done some wet felting :-)

I have also bought 20 new metal bobbins, a walking foot and  a "quilt in the ditch foot" for my sewing machine. Which have helped with the machine quilting no end :-)

I think I must be getting hooked

on quilting...

Not only have I increased my fabric stash by a substantial amount recently ( a shop closing down in Ledbury :-(  had lots of fabric ends on offer as did a couple of the local charity shops)



 
 

but I have bought a couple of different quilting feet for my sewing maching from Ebay. They are actually really useful for general sewing as well ( thats my excuse, anyway!)

And I am still managing to crochet a square a day :-) I can do one in about an hour now AND watch TV  :-)

 If you would like to see what I have been up to, while inside more during the snowy weather, please pop over to my crafting blog

and have a look :-)

Thank you for reading xxx

Crochet and more crochet

 With the snow rather halting any work outside I have been doing a lot of this

Cutting up a couple of old, holey fleeces to make cushions for the cat carriers and yarn for a crochet cat blanket.

 Untangling my good Debbie Bliss yarn, where naughty Cassie cat has a play with it (Arrrggghhh!)

Sorting out lots of ends of aforementioned yarn to use up in granny squares.

using this pattern - nice and straightforward, although I have a fancier centre square and border squares planned!

 So far I am well ahead with my plan to crochet at least a square a day - I have done 25 squares so far since Jan 1st and also have several several other items part completed :-)

 The view from my crafting table - all very cosy :-)

How are you occupying yourself during the snowy weather?

Crochet rag rug - still a wip.

For all those who wanted a photo!

Still not completed, but you get the general size and shape from this photo

How I made the rag rug yarn

For those of you who are interested

I cut up the cotton fabric into inch wide strips - and wound then into balls of yarn for easier handling.

Most of my tee shirts are not tubular round the middle section, so I could not use the "continuous spiral method" described in this link ( kindly given to me by Blue Witch ). They have seams up each side, so I had to cut them into long continuous strips, with a thicker section where I turn around and cut back down again.

As I also used the arms of some long sleeved tee shirts this gave me shorter lengths which have more knots in the ball of yarn.
 
So, having cut and joined the strips of tee shirt,  I then made a foundation chain of about 75 stitches using a 15 mm hook - I just made the chain as large as I wanted the width of the rug to be (about three feet)   and then I used (UK, not called the same in US!)  double crochet in rows, back and forth, - the rug is about 4 feet long now and VERY colourful :-)

The knots merge in with the holes in the crochet loops and it feels fine under foot, and I am very pleased with it :-)

Hope this helps you to get started.

Flannel shirts would work for this I think, as would fleece (spun polyester type) blankets - they can be found very cheaply in charity shops here so I am going to make one of these as a cat bed, next.

Crochet rag rug making

  As you may recall, I have been slowly learning to crochet. Recently I decided to crochet a rag rug.

I have loads of old, worn or holed cotton tee shirts, which are no good for charity donation, so I keep for making rags. I had a look and sorted out some in bright colours to make into cotton yarn
 

 I cut strips about an inch wide and tied them together.

because the fabric is 100% cotton all the trimmings can go in the compost!

And then I started to crochet... using a 15 mm crochet hook

As you can see, it is going to be a good sized rug! It keeps me occupied during these dull wet days where I can't do much in the garden.

I will keep you all posted as to how I get on :-)

Some things I have made recently

Sunday, 9 December 2012

These were made as a birthday gift for Compostgirl, a drink mat and a face flannel. Made from corganic cotton dishcloth yarn on a 4 mm hook.















This is the start of a round cushion,  using a 5 mm hook and Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn.

Some of the things I have been making

These were made as a birthday gift for Compostgirl, a drink mat and a face flannel













This is the start of a round cushion

Photo of the crochet recycled rag rug

For all those who wanted a photo!

Still not completed, but you get the general size and shape from this photo

More detail on my crochet rag rug

For those of you who are interested

I cut up the cotton fabric into inch wide strips - and wound then into balls of yarn for easier handling.

Most of my tee shirts are not tubular round the middle section, so I could not use the "continuous spiral method" described in this link ( kindly given to me by Blue Witch ). They have seams up each side, so I had to cut them into long continuous strips, with a thicker section where I turn around and cut back down again.

As I also used the arms of some long sleeved tee shirts this gave me shorter lengths which have more knots in the ball of yarn.
 
So, having cut and joined the strips of tee shirt,  I then made a foundation chain of about 75 stitches using a 15 mm hook - I just made the chain as large as I wanted the width of the rug to be (about three feet)   and then I used (UK, not called the same in US!)  double crochet in rows, back and forth, - the rug is about 4 feet long now and VERY colourful :-)

The knots merge in with the holes in the crochet loops and it feels fine under foot, and I am very pleased with it :-)

Hope this helps you to get started.

Flannel shirts would work for this I think, as would fleece (spun polyester type) blankets - they can be found very cheaply in charity shops here so I am going to make one of these as a cat bed, next.

What I have been up to recently

  As you may recall, I have been slowly learning to crochet. Recently I decided to crochet a rag rug.

I have loads of old, worn or holed cotton tee shirts, which are no good for charity donation, so I keep for making rags. I had a look and sorted out some in bright colours to make into cotton yarn
 

 I cut strips about an inch wide and tied them together.

because the fabric is 100% cotton all the trimmings can go in the compost!

And then I started to crochet... using a 15 mm crochet hook

As you can see, it is going to be a good sized rug! It keeps me occupied during these dull wet days where I can't do much in the garden.

I will keep you all posted as to how I get on :-)

Of crochet and curses

 I started crocheting back at the start of May. Unlike knitting, where I was taught the very basics as a child by my granny, I never learnt to crochet. But after getting into knitting again I decided I wanted to learn to crochet, so with the help of Bron at The Wool Garden in Newent, I started on my first ever granny square.

Despite her excellent teaching it was still all a bit of a struggle for me and that small granny square caused a lot of cursing and unravelling and re doing! 

I looked on YouTube for help, but it did not make it any clearer to me. But then I bought a fabulous little book on crochet , which made what Bron at The Wool Garden had shown me click into place. I need diagrams as well as hands on tuition, obviously!

After a couple (really, just two more) of small practise squares I settled on the colours I wanted to use and the pattern I wanted to end up with and started crocheting my blanket. Confident, or what? (Foolish me!)

I decided to crochet one large square rather than lots of small squares, because I wanted to and because I am an awkward so and so. This made my task harder I think, also, because if  when I made a mistake I would have to spot it and correct it quickly. If I didn't - I would have a lot of unravelling to do! More of that later...Suffice it to say I should have done lots of identical granny squares - it would have been so much easier! But I wouldn't be told.(There's a surprise!)

I picked up my crochet most nights while sitting on the sofa. I took my crochet with me sometimes when I went out, and did odd rows while waiting in cafes or in a car park. I did this until my work in progress got too heavy and bulky.

I guess you could say I got hooked on crochet.

This is what it looked like at the end of May

And this is what it looks like now. I have another three rows of the red to add around the outside.

I chose the colours to blend in with the sitting room and because I really really like them. I didn't have any of the gold wool when I started, which is why it appears part way through, but I like the effect. The wool I am using is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino - some bought from The Wool Garden and some bought on line from
Fingers and Thumbs.

It is already really heavy and I have had to stop working on it over the last few hot and humid days because it was just too warm lol. But I am really enjoying working on it, even if it is going to be the most expensive blanket ever ( I justify this to myself by calling it an heirloom blanket ha ha) and even though I am a bit OCD about any mistakes - last week I cursed and un ravelled 3 rows when I spotted I had missed a stitch ( or whatever the correct term is for crochet!) That is a lot of crochet time and unravelling!

But I love doing this, just as I love knitting dishcloths - it is practical and I make something useful and I find my mind can drift off and meditate on stuff. I can even watch a TV programme now and crochet at the same time!

I have also started on a few of the items in my crochet book as well as buying several other crochet books and magazines, as well as joining a few sites and following a few blogs about crochet...

Oh dear - definately hooked!

What do you like doing as a craft? Any other crochet fans?

Thank you for reading xx

Of crochet and curses.

 I started crocheting back at the start of May. Unlike knitting, where I was taught the very basics as a child by my granny, I never learnt to crochet. But after getting into knitting again I decided I wanted to learn to crochet, so with the help of Bron at The Wool Garden in Newent, I started on my first ever granny square.

Despite her excellent teaching it was still all a bit of a struggle for me and that small granny square caused a lot of cursing and unravelling and re doing! 

I looked on YouTube for help, but it did not make it any clearer to me. But then I bought a fabulous little book on crochet , which made what Bron at The Wool Garden had shown me click into place. I need diagrams as well as hands on tuition, obviously!

After a couple (really, just two more) of small practise squares I settled on the colours I wanted to use and the pattern I wanted to end up with and started crocheting my blanket. Confident, or what? (Foolish me!)

I decided to crochet one large square rather than lots of small squares, because I wanted to and because I am an awkward so and so. This made my task harder I think, also, because if  when I made a mistake I would have to spot it and correct it quickly. If I didn't - I would have a lot of unravelling to do! More of that later...Suffice it to say I should have done lots of identical granny squares - it would have been so much easier! But I wouldn't be told.(There's a surprise!)

I picked up my crochet most nights while sitting on the sofa. I took my crochet with me sometimes when I went out, and did odd rows while waiting in cafes or in a car park. I did this until my work in progress got too heavy and bulky.

I guess you could say I got hooked on crochet.

This is what it looked like at the end of May

And this is what it looks like now. I have another three rows of the red to add around the outside and then I will repeat the three rows of gold, then red, then cream, then red, then green, then red. And then I will see if it is big enough for what I had in mind.

I chose the colours to blend in with the sitting room and because I really really like them. I didn't have any of the gold wool when I started, which is why it appears part way through, but I like the effect. The wool I am using is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino - some bought from The Wool Garden and some bought on line from
Fingers and Thumbs.

It is already really heavy and I have had to stop working on it over the last few hot and humid days because it was just too warm lol. But I am really enjoying working on it, even if it is going to be the most expensive blanket ever ( I justify this to myself by calling it an heirloom blanket ha ha) and even though I am a bit OCD about any mistakes - last week I cursed and un ravelled 3 rows when I spotted I had missed a stitch ( or whatever the correct term is for crochet!) That is a lot of crochet time and unravelling!

But I love doing this, just as I love knitting dishcloths - it is practical and I make something useful and I find my mind can drift off and meditate on stuff. I can even watch a TV programme now and crochet at the same time!

I have also started on a few of the items in my crochet book as well as buying several other crochet books and magazines, as well as joining a few sites and following a few blogs about crochet...

Oh dear - definately hooked!

What do you like doing as a craft? Any other crochet fans?

Thank you for reading xx

Crochet

One of the things I learnt as a child, but then forgot, ( like knitting) was how to crochet.

I have painfully re learned how to knit - but crochet was not so easy

so I enrolled on a short course at THE WOOL GARDEN, in nearby Newent.

I enjoyed myself and got a bit more confidence, as well as buying some lovely DEBBIE BLISS yarn from them.

I can recommend the shop and Bron ( the owner) is lovely.

Am now crocheting a huge granny square throw :-)