{"id":11611,"date":"2014-07-30T08:31:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T12:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/?p=11611"},"modified":"2015-04-16T15:45:45","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T19:45:45","slug":"ig-crochet-3-stitch-galleries-motifs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/ig-crochet-3-stitch-galleries-motifs\/","title":{"rendered":"IG Crochet 3: Stitch Galleries & Motifs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Idiot's<\/a><\/div>\n

This is Day 3 of my week of posts telling you all about my new book, Idiot’s Guides: Crochet, which will be released in 6 days, on 5th August. <\/p>\n

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 page<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve included two stitch gallery chapters in IG: Crochet<\/em>, plus a chapter on motifs.<\/p>\n

Stitch Galleries<\/h2>\n

The beauty of crochet is that you can create a huge variety of stitch patterns from a few simple stitches. The Easy Stitch Gallery<\/strong> (Chapter 10) shows you how to create completely different effects using only the most basic stitches: chain, single crochet, half double crochet, and double crochet.<\/p>\n

\"IG
\nEasy Stitch Gallery patterns<\/em><\/p>\n

The Intermediate Stitch Gallery<\/strong> (Chapter 15) demonstrates how you can combine all the crochet stitches you’ve learnt in the previous chapters to create a huge variety of decorative effects, from lacy, open stitch patterns, to densely textured patterns, and everything in between.<\/p>\n

\"IG
\nIntermediate Stitch Gallery patterns<\/em><\/p>\n

All my stitch patterns in both chapters include a clear swatch photo, full written instructions, and a charted stitch diagram. If you follow my advice on swatching (see Gauge, p64-67) to make sure you select a hook size that will work with your yarn to produce a fabric you love, you can choose any of these stitch patterns to easily make any rectangular shaped object, such as a dishcloth, a scarf, or a blanket – just pick a stitch pattern and decide how big you want to make it, then start crocheting!<\/p>\n

Motifs<\/h2>\n

And I’ve also included a chapter on Motifs<\/strong> (Chapter 13), with useful info and tips for making perfect motifs, and a selection of 5 patterns: the classic granny square, a solid variant on a granny square, a circle-in-square design, and a granny triangle and hexagon. You’d be amazed how many different formulae there are for making motifs like these, and I used a combination of maths and lots of prototyping to come up with what I consider to be the best patterns for each of these designs, that give the flattest and straightest-edged results, even before blocking.<\/p>\n

\"IG
\nMy motif patterns<\/em><\/p>\n

I alternated between two colours for the rounds in my motifs, to make the pattern as clear as possible for you to follow. All my motif patterns include full round-by-round text instructions (with photos of each round, for those new to motif-making), a charted stitch diagram, and a general pattern for extending the motif to be as large as you want. <\/p>\n

And then you can choose any of the joins from the several options I demonstrate in Finishing Techniques<\/em> (Chapter 9 – my favourite is the Flat Slip-Stitched Seam) to crochet or stitch your motifs together into a blanket, bag, scarf, or whatever else you want!<\/p>\n

\n

Check back tomorrow, when I’ll show you the first half of the Gallery of Patterns<\/strong> I designed exclusively for this book!<\/p>\n

Note: all images reprinted with permission, Alpha Books, a member of DK.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is Day 3 of my week of posts telling you all about my new book, Idiot’s Guides: Crochet, which will be released in 6 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 […]<\/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-11611","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\/11611","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=11611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}