I've been meaning to chat about this book with you for months and months as I bought it way back in the Spring, but somehow I just haven't found the time to do it before now. But as I mentioned the other day, I'm on a mission to catch up with myself re my hooky endeavours and I've got some lovely bits and bobs to share with you.
So this book then....Cute and Easy Crochet
There are 35 projects in the book, and almost every one is guaranteed to bring forth an ooooh or aaahhhhh or wwwoooowww.
It's incredibly inspring, makes you want to start crocheting first thing in the morning and not stop until last thing at night.
It makes you want to crochet things just for the pure joy of it. Do I need another crochet bag? Probably not, but oooooh that one is just soooooo cute!
There are one or two familiar projects in this book. Things that remind me of my own style of hooky.
The colours are softer than my own choices, but the style is definitely familiar.
Yes, definitely right up my street.
The styling and photography throughout the book is sublime, with each crochet project sitting in beautiful surroundings. There is a touch of shabby chic about it, with pale distressed furniture mixed up with quirky accessories. I love it. I love the whole look and feel of this book, and just flicking through the pages is enough to make one sigh with pleasure.
Many of the projects in the book are made using Laughing Hens "Rooster" yarn, and this defines the overall style and colour palette. They are kind of soft, but not pale. Think pretty vintage rather than sweet icecream or baby pastel.
This is page 97 and when I landed here my oooooohs and aaaaahhs and woooowwws definitely went up a notch. How totally, fabulously adorable are these sweet little Russian dolls? They almost took my breath away with their cute little flowers and sweet little headscarves. Awwwwwwwwww!!
The very uselessness of them appealed to me enormously, I have a definite weakness for decorative but useless crochet items (bunting falls into this category). I couldn't wait to get started.
These sweet dolls are worked from the bottom up and they are made in traditional amigurumi style ie by working the rows round in a continuous spiral. It took me a while to get used to this idea as I hadn't ever done it before, but it's not that difficult. Two things I learnt the hard way ::
1. when the pattern instructs you to place a stitch marker at the beginning of each round, you should really take note and do as you are told.
2. Concentration and the ability to keep count are essential when making these little things, you cannot easily wing it.
There are four sizes of doll (large, medium, small and tiny) and I chose to start out with Miss Medium. As you can see, I couldn't bring myself to use white for her body so she was given a pink top instead.
You can see her white crochet face (the small white circle) sitting there on the page too, awaiting some embroidered features. Actually stitching the faces was quite a challenge, it's harder than it looks to embroider eyes and a mouth and make it look smiley rather than grimace-like. I can also tell you that when the pattern tells you to "press face" you should do it cos it makes a big difference. It's worth the trouble of getting the iron out before you try and stitch.
This is Mrs Large, all stuffed up and waiting for face and decorative details. Oh how I LOVED making the Decorative Details!! I mean, I did enjoy the challenge of working and shaping the body and creating those ingenious little headscarf ties, but really in my mind the project was ALL about The Flowery Bit.
It gave me a ridiculous amount of pleasure to prettify these little Babushkas. The combination of crochet flowers (teeeeeeeeny tiny, worked on a 2.5 mm hook) with embroidered detail (chain stitches mainly) was a complete joy to work on.
I could have gone on and on and on covering these dolls in flowers, stems and leaves but the trick is knowing how much is enough. Deciding when to stop is often harder than it seems.
So here we have them, my three little Babushka dolls, Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mrs Large, Miss Medium and Little Miss Small........
......sitting happily on my mantel, smiling their sweet embroidered smiles.
I confess to having a soft spot for Little Miss Small. Her neatness and smallness is captivating.
But she does have a tendency to keep diving head first off the mantel and into the coal bucket. Naughty Little Miss.
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Thanks for sharing the book, I love your blog and have just learnt to crochet. I've been looking for some good patterns to try out :)
Posted by: bethbutcher | October 10, 2011 at 11:48 AM
I'm not really a cutesy-inspired person.
Well,
this project likely changed things a bit.
Posted by: christine | October 09, 2011 at 12:55 AM
thank you for clearing up the misunderstanding Lucy *blush*blush* i am glad that you were infact not saying anything bad about Nicki and that i had misinterpreted your words. phew, i'm relieved about that as i enjoy both her books and your blog so very much :o)
much love xxxxxxxxx
Posted by: amelie | October 08, 2011 at 07:55 PM
LOOOOOOVE the dolls! Fabulous job!
Posted by: Becky | October 08, 2011 at 07:29 PM
criatividade 10, lucy. adorei...
Posted by: [email protected] | October 08, 2011 at 12:16 PM
dear Lucy i love your blog, it has so often cheered me. your photography and craftmanship are lovely and your writing is generally charming, but suggesting (however prettily said/disguised) that Nicki Trench has copied your designs has left a bad taste. i'm sorry but it made me feel quite queesy reading that and has spoiled my enjoyment of this post. such remarks are very damaging. i hope you will think about this.
i thought long and hard about saying this to you as i have never in all the time i have been reading your blog (pretty much from the beginning) left a less than happy comment and ordinarily i don't think it right to leaveless than happy words on someone's blog. but i feel your comment was very wrong and it does not seem right to be a 'yes' person and collude with you in this. i think that having too much yesness(as is normally right and proper in blog comments) around is not always appropriate and can wobble our senses. i hope you don't mind my frankness - i don't wish to hurt or offend, i hope you will understand that. with friends we can more easily tell them when we feel something they have said or done is not right. blogging friendships are a little different and trickier and i want you to know that of course i will still be bobbing along here regularly to catch up on your news.
btw Nicki herself might be a reader of your blog and possibly even be fine with what you have said. but i still felt the natural instinct to defend her. particularly as those designs are not unique to you and her styling is obviously different.
Posted by: amelie | October 08, 2011 at 05:32 AM
Those little Grandmas are just lovely. I am going to push past my fear zone and try them. I have sometimes placed a flat stone in the bottom or put some sand or rice in a small string tied piece of fabric for the bottom weight. I love your blog. It is always so beautiful, colorful and inspiring.
Posted by: Caroline | October 07, 2011 at 08:44 PM
Lucy! I love your style - such beautiful crocheted items :) I have just finished making the yarnbag - - just so cute with the little flowers with buttons attached. I would love to make an afghan with a lot of different colors but I have a question...HOW DO YOU DECIDED which colors to work with together? I could select 16 yummy colors but to make a granny with 3, how will I know what looks best together? Do you have a pattern of somekind? if so,I haven't found it on your website. Help - what advise do you give for someone new to using many different colors together??
Posted by: Kristine Arey | October 07, 2011 at 06:09 PM
love love love ♥ !!!
Thank you for brightening my day Lucy.
xxx
Posted by: KayElleC | October 07, 2011 at 05:43 PM
Oooohhhh, this book is very inspiring.
Love your little Babushka family!
Have a great weekend!
~X~ Karin
Posted by: Karin | October 07, 2011 at 02:18 PM
Just wondering if you always use wool for your crochet or is it ok to use acrylic?
Posted by: Amy | October 07, 2011 at 10:13 AM
Ha! I picked up that very book from the library on Tuesday. It has some lovely patterns to try.
Posted by: michelle | October 07, 2011 at 01:59 AM
LOVE!!!!!!!!!! you did a marvelous job. can't wait to make some of my own!
Posted by: Molly B | October 06, 2011 at 10:35 PM
Oooh goodness, they are adorable! You did such a great job, these look very tricky for a first foray into amigurumi! Love the embellishments :)
A book to pop onto the Christmas list me thinks!
Jones x
Posted by: The House of Jones | October 06, 2011 at 09:58 PM
Serendipity is a weird thing. I was looking at this book on Amazon yesterday but wasn't sure about ordering it, and then I found your blog today and here you've written a fantastic post about it. your babushka dolls are beautiful and I am sold on the book. Thank you for a great review. Em xx
Posted by: Emma | October 06, 2011 at 09:02 PM
Very cute! Thanks for the review--that looks like a book I would enjoy.
I am hoping you haven't forgotten about your Color Theory post that you were going to post? I've been looking forward to it. :-)
Posted by: Jamie | October 06, 2011 at 08:50 PM
Very beautiful!!! Griessli Cornelia
Posted by: Cornelia | October 06, 2011 at 07:22 PM
It is a lovely book and i hope that these little ladies soon are standing on my mantel. I love them and your colours are divine! I'm addicted to pinterest so I am off to pin them immediately!!!
Posted by: Check Insurance | October 06, 2011 at 04:25 PM
Super cute! Yet another book added to my Amazon wish list!
Posted by: Mrs C | October 06, 2011 at 02:51 PM
I have this book and it's great isn't it? I have made the bears (pg. 120) so far - the pictures of my bears are on www.macscrochet.blogspot.com if you want to take a look. I will be making the Babushka dolls for a Christmas present - I just hope that I can give them away!!!!
Posted by: Ali Campbell | October 06, 2011 at 01:44 PM
Super cute, I've got this book on my amazon wish list or hint list as I like to call it! I know what you mean about when to stop…!
Posted by: Katy | October 06, 2011 at 12:49 PM
Ooooh wonderful. The book is a MUST HAVE. Yes I might try the library first. I do that with crochet/knitting books and have them out for about 3 months. dojo xx
Posted by: Doreen Ganley | October 06, 2011 at 11:32 AM
Absolute nonsense from debra. Why should Lucy get a mention in this book? She had nothing to do with the patterns in it. One of the things that I didn't like about this book was that most things in it are common place and available everywhere. Please note the ripple in its many forms is a recognised stich pattern as is the 'granny stripe' it does not belong to any one person. A circular cushion is easily made when you know how to make a circle - part of most intructional crochet books. It is ridiculous to acuse a well known and respected writer of copying someone who has no published designs.
Posted by: Samantha | October 06, 2011 at 11:12 AM
How good is this book? I made the curtain tie backs. Love them they look great too. Well done with the dolls on my list too. Must admit I thought of you when I saw the cushion. I used Debbie Bliss wool not so easy to get hold of in Australia but oh what luxury to use.
Posted by: Laurie-Jane | October 06, 2011 at 04:58 AM
Lucy, That book looks a treat. You make it look so easy! Love your dolls.
Posted by: Kay Guest | October 06, 2011 at 12:46 AM