Finishing Techniques for Crochet

Betty Barnden Teaches Crocheters How to Get a Professional Finish

Sep 27, 2009

Finishing Techniques for Crochet by Betty Barnden shows crocheters how to get a professional looking finish to their crochet, as well as projects, trims and edgings.

The important of finishing is often over looked by crocheters. In the excitement of getting a garment or other item 'off the hook', important techniques that will ensure a great looking project can get hurried or forgotten completely. In Finishing Techniques for Crochet by Betty Barnden, crocheters are reminded about the important finishing techniques that can make the difference between a nice piece of crochet and a breathtakingly stunning piece of crochet.

Finishing Techniques for Crochet is a wide reaching book, covering many of the basics of finishing crochet items plus projects and other techniques. The book is broken down into sections. These are Construction, Additions, Fastenings, Creative Touches, Directory of Trims, Adaptable Projects and Crochet Basics. Each section explores in detail different techniques that can be used to give a professional looking finish to a garment. In addition to essential techniques such as blocking, Betty Barnden explains how to add collars and pockets, attach zips and decorative techniques such as adding borders or trims.

Projects

There are 8 projects included within Finishing Techniques for Crochet. These include simple and quick to make projects through to more complex projects such as a lacy jacket. While having complete projects may seem a little at odds with the main focus of the book, each project has been selected as it highlights and uses several of the techniques described early on. The difficulty level for each project is given so crocheters can pick projects that are best suited to their experience.

Illustrations

Techniques and projects are clearly illustrated with good quality photographs and charts. This helps to explain tricky techniques or concepts. The clear photographs illustrating how to fit a zip into crochet, for instance, helps to explain this important technique.

Finishing Techniques for Crochet provides a lot of information. It is a book that is part 'how-to', part project and part reference. This means that it provides crocheters with a good grounding of different techniques without going into too much detail. The section on felting, for instance, covers the basics. This allows a crocheter who wants to learn more about felting crochet to find more detailed information in other books or on the Internet.

Finishing Techniques for Crochet is a good general book for both beginner crocheters and crocheters with more experience. It reminds crocheters of the importance of finishing and how different techniques can be applied to give an interesting finishing touch to a project. Crocheters are also taught how patterns and designs can be developed and adapted and readers are encouraged to develop their own creativity. Finishing Techniques for Crochet covers a lot of ground and therefore some techniques are not explored in detail. With the wealth of information available to crocheters today, however, this should not be a problem. Crocheters wanting to go into more depth will find other publications or websites that give more detailed information.

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The copyright of the article Finishing Techniques for Crochet in Craft Books is owned by Kate Pullen. Permission to republish Finishing Techniques for Crochet in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.