Easy Crocheted Accessories

July 2006

Crochet has the great benefit of being fairly easy to pick up and extremely versatile. With just a few simple stitches you can make all kinds of fabulous clothes and cool accessories. Aimed at the novice, Easy Crocheted Accessories is packed with over 33 projects that will keep you hooked!

The early chapters introduce everything you'll need to know about fibres, hooks, basic stitches and techniques. The projects allow you to practise your basic skills or learn new ones. The step-by-step guides are illustrated, with each stage clearly explained. Each chapter features different kinds of patterns, from throws, hats and belts, to scarves and jewellery, so you're sure to find something to inspire your crochet hook.

No. 112, June 06

Illustrated with the clarity I have come to expect from Search Press, this soft cover book has colour photographs of real crochet rather than diagrams to explain techniques. Whilst the introductory section on crocheting (including rounds and finishing techniques) is illustrated in this way, techniques needed for patterns are not and are referred to in text only. However in 127 pages it manages to move from basics to crochet with wire and the use of beads via 33 projects that live up to the title of the book.

Mar 06

Crochet, like knitting has become fashionable again thanks to people like Madonna who aren't ashamed to be seen with their needles and yarn in public. It is yoga for the hands as one person put it, and all you have to do to be seen doing this fashionable activity is to learn hot it is done, and make something trendy with your new skills of course. I've looked at lots of books in my quest for a good one, and think that this one is possibly the best to date.

Why? The genuinely attractive and useful projects help of course, and who could resist the fun summery bag on the cover? Make all kinds of useful and fashionable items from corsages to chokers, cushions to belts, throws, scarves, shrugs and capes. Find out about different fibers and how to substitute them, UK and US hook sizes, what you need to buy in order to get started and then the all-important section on how to actually do crochet. I love the way there are not only photographs of the stags, but diagrams too and more than one way of casting on. There is a glossary of crochet terms, how to make the items up and that vital list of suppliers for those who live in the UK, Australia or New Zealand complete with shops to visit in your area and websites of suppliers. For once this book made me actually want to learn because I wanted to make the chic things in it - not a toilet roll doll or duchesse set in sight. One thing jarred slightly; in a book filled with yarn projects there was one using wire to make a lovely necklace, but this technique and material was not expanded on enough, making it something of an oddity (although making me want to know more). Wire was not a material alluded to in the suppliers list either, so why include it? This minor gripe notwithstanding, I would recommend this book for the fashion conscious would-be crocheter of any age, especially a beginner.