It's the season to start really getting ready for Christmas. Edie Eckman, the author of some of my favorite crochet books* has written a wonderful collection of patterns to start decorating. Christmas Crochet for Hearth, Home and Tree is full of easy to accomplish, quick stitched patterns that look good and fit the season perfectly.
My favorite kind of crochet books have both written instructions and international crochet diagrams. This one has both. The written instructions are easy to follow, and the diagrams are clear, and easy to read. The patterns are good for all levels. For people who have been crocheting for a long time, things like the snowy looking 3 dimensional tree decorations will work up in an evening, and putting together enough socks and mittens for a sweet, homey advent calender can be done in a week of evenings. For beginners, they can get practice in following diagrams and simple shaping techniques using worsted weight yarns and simple stitches.
My son is just learning to crochet using another book from Storey, and he's going to help me make the Advent calender.
There are some wonderful Christmas stockings in here as well, and they are also made of worsted weight yarn. You'll find a pattern for everyone in your family so they can all have a different handmade stocking that suits their personality. Bright stripes, polka dots, a complex looking peppermint colored stocking done in seed stitch, some gorgeous single color stockings that use embellishments or texture for interest, and my favorite- the flame stitch stocking which has texture and great color work.
The Christmas tree ornaments are great. My favorite are the felted ornaments. They are worked in motifs and make a great take along project and a good project for beginners since felting is so forgiving. The little birds are another favorite, folksy and simply too cute for words.
The styles are on trend for a homey, comfortable Christmas. Bright colors and easy to find yarn are a winner.
I made one of the snowflake motifs from one of the stockings in thread to decorate a simple headband /bookmark made using 1/8th blue elastic and a button center.
I've been so busy working on a big project, doing some of the small and quick projects from this book is very relaxing.
Storey Publishing gave me a copy of this book to review, but will also give one of you a copy! USA only. Comment on this blog post with your crochet decorating plans for the season to enter or click the Ravelry link below and comment on this blog post with your favorite project. On Monday, November 17th, I'll put all the names in a stocking and let my daughter draw one winner to receive a copy. Don't forget to include some sort of contact information on the comment. Ravelry name, Facebook name or email address.
You can also check out the rest of this blog tour in the next couple of weeks to see projects from the book and get more chances to enter and win a copy!
Check out this book on Ravelry!
Facebook: Edie Eckman and Storey Publishing
Twitter: @EdieEckman and @StoreyPub
Instagram: @StoreyPub
3-Nov Don't Eat the Paste
4-Nov Moogly
5-Nov Liberty's Yarn
7-Nov Rambling Designs
10-Nov Plus 3 Crochet
11-Nov Crochet Dynamite
12-Nov Jenn Likes Yarn
13-Nov Crochet Nirvana
14-Nov Yarning4aSmile
