Book Review: Seamless Crochet by Kristin Omdahl

Blissful Flowers Shawl

I have always admired Kristin Omdahl's work because her sense of style is very modern and she brings crochet projects to a forefront of fashion. Her designs are fresh, stylish and suitable for every body type. When working on the projects you always learn something new: her creations are designed very thoughtfully with clever constructions. This book, Seamless Crochet: Techniques and Motifs for Join-As-You-Go Designs, is no exception. In fact, her innovated seamless-as-you-go technique is going to revolutionize how we crochet "granny" squares. No more weaving tens or even hundreds of ends!

Since this technique is new, Kirstin included an instructional video with the book so that we can learn exactly how to follow the charts when joining motifs seamlessly. She offers wide variety of designs: ranging from simple projects, on which you can learn the seamless technique, to more complex where you learn additional tricks and methods on how to shape seamlessly.

The book is divided into 4 chapters: Shawls, Accessories, Home Decor, and Babies and Kids. It's hard for me to pick my favorite projects because all of the projects in this book are very unique and I'd like to make them all. But based on the limited time I have to commit to crochet for pure fun, I can only pick a few projects and that's how I am picking my favorite designs in this book. Here we go:

Blissful Flowers Shawl pictured on cover, Ninja Star Shawlette, Berry Blossom Market Bag, and Raspberry Pillow.

Ninja Star Shawlette

Berry Blossom Market Bag

Raspberry Pillow

There's a blog tour on Seamless Crochet going on right now. Please see schedule below. At some stops, you can win a FREE copy of the book or ebook.

The last stop will be here on my blog, on February 11, 2012. Please come back to learn more about the behind the scenes of this book in my interview with Kristin Omdahl herself.  Also, you will be able to enter to win your own free Seamless Crochet eBook with the DVD!

 

SEAMLESS CROCHET BLOG TOUR:

1/25   AllFreeCrochet.com

1/26  Crochetville.org

1/27  CraftGossip.com Crochet Guide

1/30  Crochet by Faye

1/31  About.com Guide to Crochet

2/1    She Knits When She Should be Writing

2/2    Sara Likes to Make Stuff

2/3    Jimmy Beans Wool Blog

2/6    Rebecca Velasquez Designs

2/7    Yarn Thing Blog and Podcast
         live interview with Kristin, 12 pm Eastern

2/8   Hook and I

2/9    Faina’s Knitting Mode

2/10  The Crochet Doctor

2/11 Stylish Knits

New Imperial Knits Collection coming soon!

The new Imperial Knits Collection for Spring/Summer 2012 called Water is Life will be introduced next week at the TNNA in Phoenix, AZ.  The designer, Anna Cohen, had not only created the collection but also worked on creating the color schemes for some of the yarns in this collection. The few I had seen so far are really beautiful, so I cannot wait to see all the colors. If you are at TNNA next week, make sure to stop by Imperial Yarn booth to preview the whole collection and the yarns. I had written more about the Imperial Yarn Ranch company here.

This is my second time working with Anna on the collection for Imperial Yarn, doing the design interpretation for her.  As I might had mentioned in my previous posts, it is creatively another dimension to my own designing work, I get a wonderful opportunity to explore and implement. I enjoy helping Anna's vision come to life. You can read more about this Spring/Summer 2012 collection and how such collection comes to life in the latest Imperial Yarn eNewsletter. Thank you Anna for such nice words about our working together; it's been a delight!

If you had not gotten a chance yet, please check out the new Imperial Yarn group created on Raverly. You can also follow them on Facebook.

Happy New Year 2012!

Wishing you all the best in the New Year 2012! I hope for all of you to have a very successful and productive year.

As the new year starts, many people start with new year's resolutions. I had long given up on any new year resolutions, simply because they do not work. If you want to make a positive change in your life, you should not wait until January 1st. It is no magical date to successfully sustain a change in our lives. It is just an excuse to postpone the start of the change you want. This way we just make the beginning of the change to be out of our control. So if you want to make a positive change, do it today... right now. You will feel so empowered.

So for example, if you want to be healthy, behave as a healthy person...eat healthy, wholesome food, exercise regularly, drink plenty of water and get good night sleep. You can start slow, adding healthy foods only at dinner for example. Start taking 10-20 min walks to slowly begin your exercise regiment, and then add on few more minutes every week. Tell your friend(s) about the change you are planning on implementing; he or she will keep you accountable. :)

If you want to learn a new skill (knitting, crochet anyone?), look for a course in your area to take, or an on-line tutorial that can get you started. Set aside time on your schedule to devote to learning. All it takes is little steps. Little by little goes a long way.

NEW YEAR'S SPECIAL: Buy 2 get 1 free

American Girls 18" doll Sweater and Hat set of 3 patterns

To get you started on a small project for 2012 you can successfully finish over a weekend, I am offering the American Girl 18" Doll Sweater and Hat Sets of the following 3 patterns pictured at left for price of 2.

Cotton Candy  
Candy 
Rubine 


How does it work? Add all 3 patterns into a cart and at the checkout use promotional code 3AG2012.

Special ends on January 10th, 2012 at 11:59 pm EST.

Happy Knitting and Crocheting in 2012!