{"id":11609,"date":"2014-07-29T14:08:33","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T18:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/?p=11609"},"modified":"2015-04-16T15:48:44","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T19:48:44","slug":"ig-crochet-2-tutorials-practice-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/ig-crochet-2-tutorials-practice-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"IG Crochet 2: Tutorials &#038; Practice Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"halfright\"><a href=\"\/igcrochet\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/IGCrochet_cover_sml.jpg\" alt=\"Idiot's Guides: Crochet by June Gilbank\" width=\"167\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><em>This is Day 2 of my week of posts telling you all about my new book, Idiot&#8217;s Guides: Crochet, which will be released in 7 days, on 5th August. <\/p>\n<p>For my main intro to the book, how to order your copy, and the other posts in this series, please see my main <a href=\"\/igcrochet\">IG: Crochet info page<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"clear:both\">Tutorials<\/h2>\n<p>Making really clear, easy to follow tutorials is something I&#8217;ve been perfecting for years, so I knew exactly what I wanted for the tutorials in this book:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lots of photos, so you&#8217;re walked through every stitch step-by-step.<\/li>\n<li>Ultra-close-up full-colour photos with relevant loops\/stitches highlighted so you can really see exactly what you&#8217;re looking at.<\/li>\n<li>Arrows that show exactly where to put your hook and point out any features to watch out for.<\/li>\n<li>Extra tips and tricks to make your crocheting life easier.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In short, I made this experience as close to one of my video tutorials as I could manage in book form, so you can see exactly what my hook is doing at every stage of each stitch.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/IGCrochet_tutorial.jpg\" alt=\"Idiot's Guides: Crochet by June Gilbank - sample tutorial page\" width=\"500\" height=\"314\" \/><\/p>\n<p>My instructions are detailed and complete, and the hundreds of photos are in full colour, clear and close-up, so a beginner with no prior crochet knowledge can watch my fingers and replicate my movements as I walk you, step-by-step, through every stage of learning to crochet.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve covered everything from the very basics that most books gloss over in a sentence <em>(e.g. How exactly do you &#8216;yarn over&#8217;? What does &#8216;draw up a loop&#8217; really mean?)<\/em> in a series of chapters that build your skills gradually until you&#8217;re ready to learn a variety of more advanced stitches and techniques to help you perfect your work <em>(e.g. How do you &#8216;weave in ends&#8217;? What is &#8216;blocking&#8217; and how and when should you do it?)<\/em>. <\/p>\n<h2>Practice Projects<\/h2>\n<p>Throughout the chapters I&#8217;ve included a selection of practice projects &#8211; original patterns that let you try out your new skills and make something pretty in the process. Your first projects shouldn&#8217;t have to be embarrassing or dull!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"half\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/IGCrochet_washcloths.jpg\" alt=\"Idiot's Guides: Crochet by June Gilbank - Practice Project 1: Three Simple Washcloths\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"half\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/IGCrochet_potholder.jpg\" alt=\"Idiot's Guides: Crochet by June Gilbank - Practice Project 2: Colorblock Potholder\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Three Simple Washcloths<\/strong> &#8211; a perfect first project for the novice crocheter.<br \/>\n<strong>Colorblock Potholder<\/strong> &#8211; get to grips with colour changes and basic edgings.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"half\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/IGCrochet_bunting.jpg\" alt=\"Idiot's Guides: Crochet by June Gilbank - Practice Project 3: Triangle Bunting\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"half\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/IGCrochet_coasters.jpg\" alt=\"Idiot's Guides: Crochet by June Gilbank - Practice Project 4: Circular Coasters\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Triangle Bunting<\/strong> &#8211; make top-down and bottom-up triangles that form exactly the same final shape, so you can practice both increases and decreases and make a pretty decoration in the process.<br \/>\n<strong>Circular Coasters<\/strong> &#8211; try out working in the round and using a combination of different basic crochet stitches in the same pattern.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"half\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/IGCrochet_headband.jpg\" alt=\"Idiot's Guides: Crochet by June Gilbank - Practice Project 5: Pretty Headband\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"half\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/IGCrochet_puffscarf.jpg\" alt=\"Idiot's Guides: Crochet by June Gilbank - Practice Project 6: Puff Stitch Scarf\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Pretty Headband<\/strong> &#8211; make a chainless foundation and try your hand at reading a charted stitch diagram.<br \/>\n<strong>Puff Stitch Scarf<\/strong> &#8211; an introduction to combination stitches, and perfecting those tricky puffs!<\/p>\n<p>Of course, even if you&#8217;re not a crochet newbie, these beginner-friendly projects are also pretty enough to be given as gifts, or just to make for yourself \ud83d\ude09 <\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Tip:<\/strong> If you&#8217;re beyond absolute beginner level, I&#8217;d recommend you add a little more pizzazz to the most basic project &#8211; the washcloths &#8211; by adding my Basic Edging (p50-51), or any of the other edgings from Edgings &#038; Adornments (Chapter 14).<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>I&#8217;m only just getting started with showing you what I&#8217;ve included in this book &#8211; I told you it was epic! In tomorrow&#8217;s post, we&#8217;ll look at the <strong>Stitch Galleries and Motifs<\/strong> chapters, and then on Thursday and Friday I&#8217;ll finally get to show you my patterns&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: all images reprinted with permission, Alpha Books, a member of DK.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is Day 2 of my week of posts telling you all about my new book, Idiot&#8217;s Guides: Crochet, which will be released in 7 days, on 5th August. For my main intro to the book, how to order your copy, and the other posts in this series, please see my main IG: Crochet info [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crochet"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}