Crocheting with Beads

Remember the movie "Rudolph's Shiny New Year"? The upcoming holiday made me think of the movie and the movie title made me think of crocheting with beads. (Not any odder than some trains of thought I've had.)

The library has a few titles with bead crocheting:
Designer Beadwork: Beaded Crochet Designs by Ann Benson,
Knit and Crochet with Beads by Lily M. Chin, and
Crochet Jewelry: 40 Beautiful and Unique Designs by Waejong Kim.
Evergreen Indiana libraries have about 20 crocheted jewelry books and about the same amount for crocheting with beads.

Were you to go to the internet, you could find many patterns in www.crochetcentral.com. In the search bar, enter "bead crochet" or "crochet jewelry".
www.crochetnbeads.com has a few free patterns. http://beadcrochet.com has a video tutorial for learning how to do this technique for either right or left hand. http://crochet.about.com/library/aa030197.htm has some basic instructions and www.youtube.com has many videos showing how to crochet with beads and make projects such as a bead rope necklace.

Socks

One pair of beautiful, colorful, warmly knit socks is one of the Christmas presents I've received for Christmas. Sometimes a pair of moccasins just doesn't do it on a cold evening and this will be wonderful for relaxing without a fire.

In case this tickles your crafting fancy, we have a number of books on sock making. Try one or more of these to warm the cockles of your feet.

2-at-a-Time Socks: The secret of Knitting Two at Once on One Circular Needle by Melissa Morgan-Oakes
New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi
Crocheted Socks! 16 Fun-to-Stitch Patterns by Janet Rehfeldt
And more.

If you have extra socks that are multiplying in the back of your drawer, and you want to do something fun with them, you could try Sock Crafts by Jeri Dayle.
You can also put "sock crafts" into Google (or other search engine) and find hundreds of ideas. I saw the ever popular Rockford sock monkey made into a Buddha type figure, a sock giraffe, a sock rabbit, a sock Spiderman, and, of course, sock puppets.

Hope you enjoy making them and playing with them.

Happy crafting.

12 Knits of Christmas

There's probably still time to make these cute accessories - or at least your favorites of the list. They mostly use one or two skeins of yarn apiece. A couple only use small amounts of yarn like the wine bottle caps. No kinding, little caps for wine bottles with tiny tassels! You'll find patterns for fingerless gloves, a hat, cowl, ornaments, and at least three scarves of different lengths and types. Great for unusual gifts.
Please check out this website:
www.woolandhoney.typepad.com/photos/the_12_knits_of_christmas/index.html
Thanks for this great idea, Linda Higginbotham.

Happy crafting

Fairy Tale Knits

Yes, I'm the crochet lady - but I'm enthralled with this knitting book!!!
The library recently got Fairy Tale Knits: 32 Projects to Knit Happily Ever After by Alison Stewart-Guinee. In it are patterns for magic carpets, Red's riding hood cape, Robin Hood's green shirt, elf boots, and knitted golden crowns! Cool! There are princess, page, and fairy outfits. Even if you don't have a loved little one to turn into a sprite or royalty, you must come and look through the pictures to admire the designs.
For the time being, you'll find this book in the New Book section.
Happy crafting.

New Christmas patterns

There are tons of new patterns for the holidays, both crochet and knit, all over the internet. Lion Brands yarn company hosts free patterns from all sorts of people who come up with new things on a regular basis. Crochet Central and Knit Central, of course, keep adding new patterns as well.
Do you need an ornament, a wreath, a Christmas tree pattern? They're all online. Do you need a gift for someone's kitchen, bathroom, bedroom? All can be had easily. How about a gift for a man, a woman, a child, or their dog? No problem.
Type in "Christmas ornament free crochet pattern" or "Man's hat free crochet pattern" or dog sweater free crochet pattern", etc. You get the idea. And it works for "free knit pattern" too.
23 more days until Christmas. Only 9 days until Hanukkah. You get 24 days if you celebrate Kwanzaa.
Happy crafting.