Review: Around the Corner Crochet Borders

I bought Around the Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman this month and although I haven't had the chance to make anything from it yet, I am impressed!  It is full-colored with lots of great ideas for colors that would look great with each edging.  It is FULL of information about how to adjust so that you can add a border to any fabric project or to a crocheted item.

There are also charts, pictures and instructions for 150 different edgings.  There are open and loose designs, tight designs, designs which incorporate flowers, spirals, bobbles and shells.  I am excited to have ideas for flannel blankets, clothing edges and blankets.  There are so many to choose from!  I may never have to choose the same one twice for a long time!  That is unless I fall in love with one!

The Sharp Crochet Hook

I just learned about a great new crochet tool.  It's a crochet hook with a sharp tip for getting into fabrics for making a beautiful edge.  You'd no longer have to get things hemstitched to crochet around the edge!  I just bought an edging book, too!  Yay!  I hope to get one of these Sharp Crochet Hooks, soon.

Elise Hats

I bought this hat pattern at the beginning of the month and I have already made two and a half of them.  I may be giving lots and lots of these away!  It is really simple once you get the hang of it and it turns out looking beautifully!  This one is for the new baby of a friend!  I got the pattern from: www.mamachee.etsy.com .  The pattern also includes a flower to go on the side, but I loved it just like it was!

She has tons of awesome patterns and ideas!  She is also the owner of the blog Easy Makes Me Happy, listed on the side.

Review: The Crochet Stitch Bible

The Crochet Stitch Bible by Betty Barnden is probably my favorite crochet book to this point.  It isn't a book of patterns to make purses or afghans, but it is full of stitches that you can use to make anything you want.  It has lots of instructions for various different techniques as well.  Each stitch is described, shown with a graph and beautifully photographed.  There are stitches using simple stitches with minor changes as well as intricate alterations as you gain skills and confidence.

You can easily take a simple pattern or idea and make it look amazing with these stitches!

When I am trying to make something new, The Crochet Stitch Bible is usually the first place I go to decide what the crocheted fabric will look like.

Double Crochet (dc)

Start a row of chains. For practice do as many as you'd like: 

Yarn over.

Insert hook in 4th chain from hook.

Yarn over and bring a loop through the chain.  You will now have 3 loops on the hook.

Yarn over and pull the loop through two of the loops on your hook.  Two loops will be left on the hook.

Yarn over and pull through the two remaining loops on your hook.  Double crochet (dc) created!

Continue to the end of the chain, inserting hook into the next chain each time.  At the end of the row, chain 3 and turn the work.

At this point, you'll have to follow what the pattern says.  Some patterns will have the chains at the beginning of a row count as stitches and some don't.  In this picture, I didn't count them, so there are chains at the end that you do not work stitches into and you don't count as you go. 

The thing you have to be careful of is when they don't want you to count them and you do, you end up with a much wider end of project than beginning.  The easiest way to avoid this is to just count at the end of each completed row.