You can find and download the free tutorial by just clicking here!

Print yourself out a copy to tuck in the book, and you will have a little extra resource as you work! For full disclosure the I-cord cast on instructions were erroneously left out when the book went into print so here is the text that should be in the pattern notes of both patterns:

I-cord cast on: Make an I-cord the number of rows directed in your pattern. Hold the I-cord behind the pegs of the loom, and parallel to the base of the loom. Using the knitting tool, lift one leg of the stitch on the first row of the 1-cord up and onto a peg from behind. Work up one row on the I-cord, lifting stitches from the I-cord onto the loom. Work two rows of the I-cord, skip one and work two more. Continue in this manner until the desired number of stitches has been cast onto the loom.

You might want to highlight that text, right click on it and print selection and tuck that in your book as well! These things happen but not to fear, we have it covered!

I will be working on an publications page that will have pdf’s of the errata from my books so look for a new tab to pop up over the next few days!

1. I have 4 kids, 4 cats, a dog, 2 fish and a husband.(he’s my favourite pet)
2. I am totally disorganized, and totally ADD! (and I can’t seem to figure out why!)
3. I teach my kids at home using the Ohio Virtual Academy, which is good because I am so disorganized!
4. On the side, I design and write patterns for knitting and loom knitting and now a bit of crochet. (I get around eh?)
5. I am the youngest, the oldest, and the middle child all at once.. and no I am not an only child.. figure that one out! I dare ya! (wonder what the birth order experts would make of that!)

And if you are on Twitter you can follow me!

Ok then! 4 days to Hawaii.. gotta go get some more stuff knocked off my to do list!

I love a good informative blog festival. This one is no exception! It looks great! If you are a brand new mom, or a mom to be you can relish in some great information today! And it lasts all week so hey there will be something for us old seasoned moms too!

Here’s the schedule:

Monday - May 12, 2008

Guest Speaker: Carrie Lauth
Topic: Breastfeeding FAQs

Guest Speaker: Dr. Diep Nguyen
Topic: How to Prevent Still Birth

Guest Speaker: Barbara Winters
Topic: The Joys of Adoption

Tuesday - May 13, 2008

Guest Speaker: Annette Yen
Topic: Home Schooling Basics

Guest Speaker: Melitsa Avila
Topic: Activities Moms Can Do with Their Little Ones

Guest Speaker: Aurelia Williams
Topic: How to Speak to Your Child so They Listen

Wednesday - May 14, 2008

Guest Speaker: Kelly McCausey
Topic: How Moms Can Use the Internet to Break Out of The “Mommy Box”

Guest Speaker: Tracy Roberts
Topic: Do’s and Don’ts of Family Traveling

Guest Speaker: Val Selby
Topic: Exercise and Weight Loss for Moms

Thursday - May 15, 2008

Guest Speaker: Cara Mirabella
Topic: Best Housekeeping Secrets

Guest Speaker: Alyssa Avant
Topic: The Advantages of an Organized Life

Friday - May 16, 2008

Guest Speaker: Marie Ynami
Topic: Fun and Easy Father’s Day Gift Idea

Guest Speaker: Teresa Smolinski
Topic: Encouraging Your Kids in Business

Guest Speaker: Vera Raposo
Topic: Bringing Your Small Business to the Net

Looks pretty good don’t you think? Hey.. don’t forget to stop back here!!!

Should it be…

1. Crest of the Wave scarf, from Ball and Skein? I already have that one started just have to figure out what row I am on!

2.  Simply Sterling  Eyelet Shawl by Knit Wit Knits, made of Kraemer’s Silk & Silver yarn.. am I brave enough to tote a yarn with a strand of actual sterling silver spun into it in my carry on? (sorry no photo)

3.  Biscuit Blanket from I Live on a Farm? Keep it small and simple?

Well what do you think? What should it be?

She is doing a 5K walk for Fibromyalgia research tomorrow! Juliann actually lives with fibromyalgia and is wheel chair bound at times so doing a 5k walk is a huge deal for her. I do wish I could walk by her side tomorrow, but I can’t; so the best I can do is to help her out by enlisting support!!  SO.. not to mince words… please donate now!  There is more about Juliann and her struggles with fibromyalgia on the donation page..

My hat’s off to you girl!! Have a great walk!

Let’s spice things up a bit.. anyone who donates today, stop back here and let me know and I will throw your name in a drawing for this:

Now.. you will have to wait a bit on it.. I do have one copy sitting here on my desk but it has to go to Hawaii with me… I think…  So…go.. donate now and come back and leave me a comment letting me know you did!! And even if you don’t win.. you can feel good about supporting a great cause!

Pretty cool I think!

So I give you my Cinco de Mayo Cookbook review!

We don’t want no stinking Chi Chi’s or tacos in a box.. no, we want the real thing! And if it is the real thing that you want then The Art of Mexican Cooking  by Diana Kennedy is for you!

This is the beloved classic cookbook back in print after nearly 20 years! I have to say when I received this book I was surprised, I wasn’t expecting it to be so thick!! This book covers everything!!!  Soups, corn, seafood, poultry, pork, beef, eggs and cheese, breads and tortillas and of course.. desserts!!

AND IT’S ALL THE REAL DEAL!

No reaching for that box of tortilla shells, make em’ yourself, and with step by step photos  along the way you can do it with ease! Diana Kennedy truly puts the art into Mexican cooking… (and no Isela.. you can’t have this one..not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!!)

Stop over! I am off to sleep for 12 hours I think..

I got a nice bunch of stuff for $7, and the best was the box of Ghiardelli brownie mix for $1.25! woo hoo..

But let me tell you.. those delicious brownies pale in comparison to the delectable delights in my latest cook book. Chocolate Epiphany: Exceptional Cookies, Cakes, and Confections for Everyone  by Francois Payard is chock full of THE most tempting chocolate creations I have ever seen.

A little pictorial tour if I may..

Chocolate pavlovas with chocolate mascarpone mousse!!  Check out the meringue serving bowl.. how I love it when you can eat the dishes rather than washing them!

This is flourless milk chocolate cake with grapefruit & hazelnuts.. Looks like a lovely chocolate waterfall that I could just stand under and open my mouth!!

Chocolate popcorn topping a chocolate parfait.. can someone say chick flick movie night?

Chocolate churros.. Hey Isela I will make these for you if you come to visit me!! (I’ll try not to burn them!)

From chocolate breads to tarts and cakes  and candies; this book covers it all. So far I have been content to flip through the pages and drool. However I think this week I will make some of the flourless chocolate cookies.. it seems I actually have all the ingredients at hand.. so why not! Another must make is the chocolate churros.. maybe for Cinco de Mayo?  I think I have everything I need for those too!

Oooh and I can’t wait to try the tiramisu I think I can do it because the directions seem pretty clear!

What fun! Oops! Gotta run, my brownies are done!

Till then.. I sleep.. ok.. never mind there’s Sunday school and then church and then right after there is skating practice and grocery shopping.. ai ai ai .. it never ends does it?

I don’t know if I will sneak in a Knitting 911 episode.. right now nothing is scheduled.. but I should be able to do it, my voice is back! (now watch.. thunderstorms will knock out the power or something!)

So stop by and check in! Laters!

Oooh and hey.. check it out.. BlogHer is sending some lucky blogger to the BlogHer Conference..feel free to nominate me!!

It is a snip from the Crafter’s Choice book club web site.  Well.. ok mostly. I took a little artistic licence and added the Featuring designs bit.. Now the book rightfully has Isela’s name on the front.. She did the bulk of the patterns, and she kept all of us in line! (not an easy job at times.. well.. talking about me there) But I wanted to give the other designers a bit of a bump!!

Now the shipping date.. that is actually the shipping date they have on the site.. it is not a May Day joke.. or a late April fool’s day joke! But I have no idea where they got that  date or if they are actually going to fulfill it!  I suppose since I am a member I could test it out! Hmm…

I know this; I am excited to see it come out! I am excited to see the other designs in the book. I have had a few little sneak peeks but not much. I only know what my own designs look like for sure. And I think if you were at the Knit Out you might have seen one of them.. a little baby sweater..

So give me a heads up when your copy arrives! I will most likely have to wait a while!!

A real book review tomorrow for Foodie Friday! A perfectly sinful cook book this time around!!

Anyway.. in the mean time.. if you have any how to questions.. let me know!

So back to how to make dinner out of a strange conglomeration of ingredients.. mostly pork chops! Got any ideas on that?? Let see.. I have some mashed potato mix and corn bread mix.. dried cranberries and walnuts.. anyone??

And a challenge from Rhett and Link for their community building exercise to make a response video. If you make a video you get a secret song to get clues to win the big prize a personal concert by Rhett and Link at your home!! The kids jumped on it.. face paint was bought and this is the first result..*

The older two have a more complex video and hopefully we will finish filming tomorrow, and  I will walk them through editing there… you know… teachable moments and home schooling and all that jazz.. So I will show you their video later this week!

And hey all this video editing under my belt might just kick me into shape to get some how to videos done!

*Juliann warns me that if I keep it up he might end up like her.. or married to someone like her.. I say.. he could to a lot worse!!

Smooshed a few fingers but hey.. it’s all worth it!! At least I hope it will be!

On the chart for the saw tooth edge row 12 is missing!

Don’t fear.. it’s simply a purl back row.. so you just purl all the stitches that are there and start over with row 1!!

Now ya’ll either missed it, ignored it.. or just were too shy to tell me eh?

I think that any fiber artist could use a little crochet here and there. And so with the class under my belt, I found the need to expand my crochet book library.

Enter Crafter’s Choice.. yep.. they hooked me in again! That 4 books for $1 each tempted me beyond resistance as there were some books on that list that I wanted!

The first book up is one I acquired on my last sojourn with the book club.

Crocheting School: A Complete Course by Sterling Publishing is a nice book full of the basics. But I will admit it, I just didn’t get it until I took the class! I am a heavy kinesthetic learner! Now, I find that it is a good resource for anyone who is starting out with crochet. You certainly can’t go wrong with this book either if you are good at learning these types of skills from books. The photos are nice and the instructions clear, I apparently needed just a little more to push me over the edge!

The second book today is  The Complete Book of Crochet Border Designs: Hundreds of Classic & Original Patterns by  Linda Schapper.

I took this along with me yesterday as I waited for Azia to do her state tests, and picked out a border for my latest little Blythe doll dress…

I can see a well used well worn book in the future! This book RAWKS! The layout is wonderful, the borders are categorized and organized in a very well thought out and sensible way.  This makes it easy to find what you want!

The photos of each border are simple, showing only the border, and clear. They are all uniform, which I also find helpful. The border patterns are given in both word, and chart which will catch those of you who like words, and those of you who work better with charts.. or those of us who just happen to like to have both readily available.

All in all this is a great book (haven’t I said that already?) Who knew I could get so excited about a book with just crochet borders?

The last book today is The New Granny Square  by   Susan Cottrell.

I have to admit the cover of this book caught my eye. I have to also admit that this is the first time I have anything negative to say about a book in a review!

The projects are great! That throw on the front beautiful, and the other projects are very nice, I drool over the woven rings square! So I give the projects section two thumbs up!

The problem comes with the photos of the individual squares in the ‘instruction’ section. They are done up in various yarns, many of which are variegated or novelty yarns and this makes it very difficult to see what is going on in the square.  Personally I like to see what is going on so this is a great distraction to me. Of course I am comparing this book to the borders book where everything was so simple and clear, so you might want to take this with a grain of salt!!

All in all, I think my crochet library is shaping up!

What go to books do you use for crochet? Inquiring minds want to know!

Yep he fell asleep like that!

You might not have a whack of odd balls like I do; but let’s face it, we all have yarn in our stash that has been separated from it’s label or even some ‘vintage’ mystery yarn that we picked up here and there. So just how do you determine how much yarn you have there?

It can be easy and low tech or you can get fancy..

In your LYS or online yarn shops there are often advertised little yarn measuring devices like this:

These are nice and vary in price from about $40.00   to $70.00. You grab it, clamp it to your work table and run the yarn through it  typically between your skein winder and ball winder and go go go. It’s quick, easy and pretty darn accurate.

You really need to use a ball winder at least with this gadget for it to work really properly.

Of course if you are concerned about the price of the ‘commercial’ models you can always opt for your own low cost version. The ‘yarn meters’ are typically fishing line meters that are available at your local sporting goods store, that are mounted on a wooden yarn guide and clamp set up. I asked my husband to see if they were available one day at our local sporting goods store and rather than just scouting, he came home with one! So for about $15 I had my yarn meter! (and it even lights up!) I just clamp it on an unsuspecting chair placed between my swift or skein of yarn, and my ball winder and measure away!

Now, if you don’t like all that fancy winding, and spinning and all there are some other options for you.

The wrap method..

This has been the method I have  typically used to measure any mystery yarn in my stash. I usually grab one of my kitchen chairs and turn it upside down. I measure around the legs, make a note of the measurement and start winding!  Or I just wind it around the back of the chair.. works just as well..

I count how many times that I wind the yarn around and then do a little math magic to figure out how much yardage I have. In my case, the measurement around my chair top is 31″, so at 75 wraps around it, I have 2,325″ of yarn. If I divide that by 36 (you know 36 inches in a yard..) I get approximately 64.5 yards!

You can also do this with a piece of cardboard. Easy Peasey and better yet! FREE!

The Niddy Noddy:

I will admit to having bought one of these.. this is typically a tool spinners use, and while I have temporarily given up spinning till I get a wheel that is more suited to me, I will keep the niddy noddy. I have however yet to use it!

Knitter’s Review did a little piece on using niddy noddies to measure yarn.

And here is a nice piece on the general use of a niddy noddy.

So if you have one and haven’t used it hey, there you go!

There are some interesting mathematical methods for figuring your yarn by weight and all but hey I like to do as little math as possible!! So pfft!

I hope that you have found a method here to use for measuring your mystery yarn!

Till next How To’s Day, keep on playing with that fiber!! And if you have any questions you want me to cover, let me know! Just leave me a comment!

It’s fun to see the little dots pop up here and there around the globe that show me where you are visiting from.

But that doesn’t tell me much about you! I’d love to get to know who is reading my blog! So answer me this:

• Who are you?
• Where are you from?
• How did you stumble upon my blog?
• Do you have a blog? (I’ll stop by and leave you a comment or two!)
• What would you like to see on this blog in the future?

Leave the answers in the comments, and hey maybe even leave me a question or two!

In any case, thanks for stopping by, this blog wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for you reading it!

Edited to add: Hey BTW, if you are on Twitter, let me know so I can follow you! Or you can follow me!!

I’ll be back tomorrow. Hopefully feeling better.. meanwhile waiting for the Nyquil to kick in..

A random shot for you to enjoy!

See ya tomorrow!

There it is blocking on my tiny piece of cardboard blocking board next to some quarters for scale!

There is just something about finishing a sweater in two evenings..

Even if it is a tiny one!

Then there is this too, three afghan squares.. one loom knit, one needle knit, one crocheted.. these are going to the group effort to make an afghan for the three girls who were in the other vehicle, in the accident in which the knitting community lost Joel Pennington.. I think he would like it.

A little yarn thrown in for joining squares.. I hope this brings some comfort to these girls, especially the two sisters who lost their mother in the accident. It turns out she was their only parent.. so now they are without mother and father! So I pray these afghans will show them that there are some people out there caring for them, even from afar!

Now I have to go finish packing for the church retreat, I sent the two oldest kids ahead with another family from church, and I have to fetch Brian from the airport at 11:30 tonight, and head down to the retreat in the morning!

Ms. Ishaque offers a great volume full of stunning paper crafts for the home. I marvel that these items are made from mere paper and cardboard! From a retro wall clock, to photo frames and albums and even furniture this book shows us the real versatility that is paper!

The initial section of the book covers the basics, everything you need to know to work with paper and make stunning projects for your home. Layering and weaving, cutting and piercing, and folding and pleating are among the techniques covered in this how to section. The project section then follows these lines, offering several projects that apply to each technique.

I will definitely be adding a few of these projects to my summer queue, I especially think that wall clock would be stunning on the expanse of bare wall that is in my living room! And who doesn’t need a unique paper bowl to hold a bit of their yarn stash creatively?

Consider paper crafting if you are looking for something new.. and if you do let The Paper Home be your guide!

You can find and download the free tutorial by just clicking here!

Print yourself out a copy to tuck in the book, and you will have a little extra resource as you work! For full disclosure the I-cord cast on instructions were erroneously left out when the book went into print so here is the text that should be in the pattern notes of both patterns:

I-cord cast on: Make an I-cord the number of rows directed in your pattern. Hold the I-cord behind the pegs of the loom, and parallel to the base of the loom. Using the knitting tool, lift one leg of the stitch on the first row of the 1-cord up and onto a peg from behind. Work up one row on the I-cord, lifting stitches from the I-cord onto the loom. Work two rows of the I-cord, skip one and work two more. Continue in this manner until the desired number of stitches has been cast onto the loom.

You might want to highlight that text, right click on it and print selection and tuck that in your book as well! These things happen but not to fear, we have it covered!

I will be working on an publications page that will have pdf’s of the errata from my books so look for a new tab to pop up over the next few days!

1. I have 4 kids, 4 cats, a dog, 2 fish and a husband.(he’s my favourite pet)
2. I am totally disorganized, and totally ADD! (and I can’t seem to figure out why!)
3. I teach my kids at home using the Ohio Virtual Academy, which is good because I am so disorganized!
4. On the side, I design and write patterns for knitting and loom knitting and now a bit of crochet. (I get around eh?)
5. I am the youngest, the oldest, and the middle child all at once.. and no I am not an only child.. figure that one out! I dare ya! (wonder what the birth order experts would make of that!)

And if you are on Twitter you can follow me!

Ok then! 4 days to Hawaii.. gotta go get some more stuff knocked off my to do list!

I love a good informative blog festival. This one is no exception! It looks great! If you are a brand new mom, or a mom to be you can relish in some great information today! And it lasts all week so hey there will be something for us old seasoned moms too!

Here’s the schedule:

Monday - May 12, 2008

Guest Speaker: Carrie Lauth
Topic: Breastfeeding FAQs

Guest Speaker: Dr. Diep Nguyen
Topic: How to Prevent Still Birth

Guest Speaker: Barbara Winters
Topic: The Joys of Adoption

Tuesday - May 13, 2008

Guest Speaker: Annette Yen
Topic: Home Schooling Basics

Guest Speaker: Melitsa Avila
Topic: Activities Moms Can Do with Their Little Ones

Guest Speaker: Aurelia Williams
Topic: How to Speak to Your Child so They Listen

Wednesday - May 14, 2008

Guest Speaker: Kelly McCausey
Topic: How Moms Can Use the Internet to Break Out of The “Mommy Box”

Guest Speaker: Tracy Roberts
Topic: Do’s and Don’ts of Family Traveling

Guest Speaker: Val Selby
Topic: Exercise and Weight Loss for Moms

Thursday - May 15, 2008

Guest Speaker: Cara Mirabella
Topic: Best Housekeeping Secrets

Guest Speaker: Alyssa Avant
Topic: The Advantages of an Organized Life

Friday - May 16, 2008

Guest Speaker: Marie Ynami
Topic: Fun and Easy Father’s Day Gift Idea

Guest Speaker: Teresa Smolinski
Topic: Encouraging Your Kids in Business

Guest Speaker: Vera Raposo
Topic: Bringing Your Small Business to the Net

Looks pretty good don’t you think? Hey.. don’t forget to stop back here!!!

Should it be…

1. Crest of the Wave scarf, from Ball and Skein? I already have that one started just have to figure out what row I am on!

2.  Simply Sterling  Eyelet Shawl by Knit Wit Knits, made of Kraemer’s Silk & Silver yarn.. am I brave enough to tote a yarn with a strand of actual sterling silver spun into it in my carry on? (sorry no photo)

3.  Biscuit Blanket from I Live on a Farm? Keep it small and simple?

Well what do you think? What should it be?

She is doing a 5K walk for Fibromyalgia research tomorrow! Juliann actually lives with fibromyalgia and is wheel chair bound at times so doing a 5k walk is a huge deal for her. I do wish I could walk by her side tomorrow, but I can’t; so the best I can do is to help her out by enlisting support!!  SO.. not to mince words… please donate now!  There is more about Juliann and her struggles with fibromyalgia on the donation page..

My hat’s off to you girl!! Have a great walk!

Let’s spice things up a bit.. anyone who donates today, stop back here and let me know and I will throw your name in a drawing for this:

Now.. you will have to wait a bit on it.. I do have one copy sitting here on my desk but it has to go to Hawaii with me… I think…  So…go.. donate now and come back and leave me a comment letting me know you did!! And even if you don’t win.. you can feel good about supporting a great cause!

Pretty cool I think!

So I give you my Cinco de Mayo Cookbook review!

We don’t want no stinking Chi Chi’s or tacos in a box.. no, we want the real thing! And if it is the real thing that you want then The Art of Mexican Cooking  by Diana Kennedy is for you!

This is the beloved classic cookbook back in print after nearly 20 years! I have to say when I received this book I was surprised, I wasn’t expecting it to be so thick!! This book covers everything!!!  Soups, corn, seafood, poultry, pork, beef, eggs and cheese, breads and tortillas and of course.. desserts!!

AND IT’S ALL THE REAL DEAL!

No reaching for that box of tortilla shells, make em’ yourself, and with step by step photos  along the way you can do it with ease! Diana Kennedy truly puts the art into Mexican cooking… (and no Isela.. you can’t have this one..not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!!)

Stop over! I am off to sleep for 12 hours I think..

I got a nice bunch of stuff for $7, and the best was the box of Ghiardelli brownie mix for $1.25! woo hoo..

But let me tell you.. those delicious brownies pale in comparison to the delectable delights in my latest cook book. Chocolate Epiphany: Exceptional Cookies, Cakes, and Confections for Everyone  by Francois Payard is chock full of THE most tempting chocolate creations I have ever seen.

A little pictorial tour if I may..

Chocolate pavlovas with chocolate mascarpone mousse!!  Check out the meringue serving bowl.. how I love it when you can eat the dishes rather than washing them!

This is flourless milk chocolate cake with grapefruit & hazelnuts.. Looks like a lovely chocolate waterfall that I could just stand under and open my mouth!!

Chocolate popcorn topping a chocolate parfait.. can someone say chick flick movie night?

Chocolate churros.. Hey Isela I will make these for you if you come to visit me!! (I’ll try not to burn them!)

From chocolate breads to tarts and cakes  and candies; this book covers it all. So far I have been content to flip through the pages and drool. However I think this week I will make some of the flourless chocolate cookies.. it seems I actually have all the ingredients at hand.. so why not! Another must make is the chocolate churros.. maybe for Cinco de Mayo?  I think I have everything I need for those too!

Oooh and I can’t wait to try the tiramisu I think I can do it because the directions seem pretty clear!

What fun! Oops! Gotta run, my brownies are done!

Till then.. I sleep.. ok.. never mind there’s Sunday school and then church and then right after there is skating practice and grocery shopping.. ai ai ai .. it never ends does it?

I don’t know if I will sneak in a Knitting 911 episode.. right now nothing is scheduled.. but I should be able to do it, my voice is back! (now watch.. thunderstorms will knock out the power or something!)

So stop by and check in! Laters!

Oooh and hey.. check it out.. BlogHer is sending some lucky blogger to the BlogHer Conference..feel free to nominate me!!

It is a snip from the Crafter’s Choice book club web site.  Well.. ok mostly. I took a little artistic licence and added the Featuring designs bit.. Now the book rightfully has Isela’s name on the front.. She did the bulk of the patterns, and she kept all of us in line! (not an easy job at times.. well.. talking about me there) But I wanted to give the other designers a bit of a bump!!

Now the shipping date.. that is actually the shipping date they have on the site.. it is not a May Day joke.. or a late April fool’s day joke! But I have no idea where they got that  date or if they are actually going to fulfill it!  I suppose since I am a member I could test it out! Hmm…

I know this; I am excited to see it come out! I am excited to see the other designs in the book. I have had a few little sneak peeks but not much. I only know what my own designs look like for sure. And I think if you were at the Knit Out you might have seen one of them.. a little baby sweater..

So give me a heads up when your copy arrives! I will most likely have to wait a while!!

A real book review tomorrow for Foodie Friday! A perfectly sinful cook book this time around!!

Anyway.. in the mean time.. if you have any how to questions.. let me know!

So back to how to make dinner out of a strange conglomeration of ingredients.. mostly pork chops! Got any ideas on that?? Let see.. I have some mashed potato mix and corn bread mix.. dried cranberries and walnuts.. anyone??

And a challenge from Rhett and Link for their community building exercise to make a response video. If you make a video you get a secret song to get clues to win the big prize a personal concert by Rhett and Link at your home!! The kids jumped on it.. face paint was bought and this is the first result..*

The older two have a more complex video and hopefully we will finish filming tomorrow, and  I will walk them through editing there… you know… teachable moments and home schooling and all that jazz.. So I will show you their video later this week!

And hey all this video editing under my belt might just kick me into shape to get some how to videos done!

*Juliann warns me that if I keep it up he might end up like her.. or married to someone like her.. I say.. he could to a lot worse!!

Smooshed a few fingers but hey.. it’s all worth it!! At least I hope it will be!

On the chart for the saw tooth edge row 12 is missing!

Don’t fear.. it’s simply a purl back row.. so you just purl all the stitches that are there and start over with row 1!!

Now ya’ll either missed it, ignored it.. or just were too shy to tell me eh?

I think that any fiber artist could use a little crochet here and there. And so with the class under my belt, I found the need to expand my crochet book library.

Enter Crafter’s Choice.. yep.. they hooked me in again! That 4 books for $1 each tempted me beyond resistance as there were some books on that list that I wanted!

The first book up is one I acquired on my last sojourn with the book club.

Crocheting School: A Complete Course by Sterling Publishing is a nice book full of the basics. But I will admit it, I just didn’t get it until I took the class! I am a heavy kinesthetic learner! Now, I find that it is a good resource for anyone who is starting out with crochet. You certainly can’t go wrong with this book either if you are good at learning these types of skills from books. The photos are nice and the instructions clear, I apparently needed just a little more to push me over the edge!

The second book today is  The Complete Book of Crochet Border Designs: Hundreds of Classic & Original Patterns by  Linda Schapper.

I took this along with me yesterday as I waited for Azia to do her state tests, and picked out a border for my latest little Blythe doll dress…

I can see a well used well worn book in the future! This book RAWKS! The layout is wonderful, the borders are categorized and organized in a very well thought out and sensible way.  This makes it easy to find what you want!

The photos of each border are simple, showing only the border, and clear. They are all uniform, which I also find helpful. The border patterns are given in both word, and chart which will catch those of you who like words, and those of you who work better with charts.. or those of us who just happen to like to have both readily available.

All in all this is a great book (haven’t I said that already?) Who knew I could get so excited about a book with just crochet borders?

The last book today is The New Granny Square  by   Susan Cottrell.

I have to admit the cover of this book caught my eye. I have to also admit that this is the first time I have anything negative to say about a book in a review!

The projects are great! That throw on the front beautiful, and the other projects are very nice, I drool over the woven rings square! So I give the projects section two thumbs up!

The problem comes with the photos of the individual squares in the ‘instruction’ section. They are done up in various yarns, many of which are variegated or novelty yarns and this makes it very difficult to see what is going on in the square.  Personally I like to see what is going on so this is a great distraction to me. Of course I am comparing this book to the borders book where everything was so simple and clear, so you might want to take this with a grain of salt!!

All in all, I think my crochet library is shaping up!

What go to books do you use for crochet? Inquiring minds want to know!