Crocheted shawls - book review

Crocheted shawls is one my latest purchases and it's from the Vogue Knitting on the go series. I want to make most of the 21 projects! That's amazing for any book and especially for this series which usually has just a few items of interest in each book. Most of the shawls are on the difficult side and many use unusual techniques also such as broomstick lace. Most of the designers are young and new such as Kristin Omdahl who has the broomstick shawl and the spiral shawl. The granny square shawl is a sort of cape. There's an interesting round medallion shawl. Others with motifs are the star shawl and the spiraled flower shawl by Robyn Chachula, another new designer to watch. Suzanne Atkinson, of the Rowan group, has two lovely ones.Doris Chan is also in this book. The only shawl I find unattractive is the aran shawl so this book is definitely a must if you're into crocheting shawls.

Climbing the ladder

This is by Victoria Pearlman in the Step by step beads for Nov/Dec 2007. I will probably make it again. I'm using just ordinary beads of which I have a lot so this will be good to do with some of my other ones as well. It was quick and fun. First you do the bugles lines in ladder stitch and then you hook them together with the seed beads.

embellished square stitch by Jiron

I finished an embellished square stitch bracelet from the latest Step by step beads by Regina Jiron. I just had the right beads for this one and it was a nice fast project that I will enjoy wearing.

knitted dolls

Why are patterns for knitted dolls done in lots of little pieces? Crochet is done spirals in the round. I think the Germans knit in the round also. Makes more sense to me.

Roberti crystal bracelet

This was a free online bracelet by Roberti. Took just a few hours and I'm very pleased with it.

poor blogger

I'm sorry about not blogging for so long, but I've been really busy with my crafts and stuff. Right now I'm beading every day and also trying to develop my own fairisle cardigan. I've done most of the design on the body with one more section still to go and hopefully I'll have enough of the yarns because if not, I have to change some designs to other colors.

I'm also working on an Aran pullover for my daughter and finished a small version for my granddaughter. Then I started making a crochet doll and am now very interested in doing more crochet toys as opposed to knitted toys. It just seems more organic to make them the crochet way where you crochet around all the time. With knitting the patterns are done flat and then joined. I imagine one could also do them around, but I haven't seen any patterns done that way.

I taught myself to do hairpin lace from a website and bought the Boye fork but it seems very flimsy when I use it.

I've done a lot of book reviews for Amazon but I think it's time I began to write a few on my own blog. I try not to buy yarns but when it comes to books and patterns, I haven't declared a diet yet. Today I just got the latest Evelyn A. Clark book on triangular shawls.

Bead lady bracelet

Cathy Lampole, bead lady, designed this bracelet using Delicas and Swarowski crystals. I first ran into it on a friend in London. I just finished it today and it took me about 3 days as I'm not all that fast with peyote and delicas. The central Swarowski section went quickly though. I plan on making more of these.

necklace based on "white Russian book"

I've seen this pattern used in Bead and button and I made it first from there. Then I went to the white Russian book and found the pattern the way it is here which I think is much better. When you use the bugles, you don't see the bead thread.