Product Description

Learn to crochet, make a granny square. It's a simple formula that has held true for decades. Crocheters love granny squares because the technique is simple to learn but the possibilities are endless. Vary the colors. Use the same colors but change their placement. Add unique images. Make the same square over and over but in different sizes. There is much to love about the classic square crochet motif.

But if it's hip to make squares, imagine the coolness quotient of circles, stars, triangles, and hexagons. Beyond-the-Square Crochet Motifs introduces crocheters to more than 150 designs of every size and shape. Full-color photographs capture the intricate details and color work in each motif, and the stitching instructions offer the flexibility of being presented in both text and symbol formats.

Each motif can be quickly crocheted and then used as a small embellishment on a larger item or combined with other motifs to create original pieces, from baby blankets to tote bags. Edie Eckman inspires readers to see the world of possibility in each motif. Master the technique, then let the imagination run wild.

Motifs give crocheters the freedom to play with shape, color, and texture in patterns that are small and quickly completed. Motifs — each one a tiny work of art — are at once addictive and rewarding. With its unexpected range of shapes, designs, and color ideas, Beyond-the-Square Crochet Motifs will keep enthusiasts happy for a very long time!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5097 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 202 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781603420396
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review

“Once you pick up a copy of Edie Eckman’s “Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs”…you may never what to put your crochet book down again, at least not until you’ve created one of the 144 fun-to-make colorful squares, rectangles, circles, hexagons and stars featured in the spiral-bound book.” –Detroit News

From the Back Cover
Create crochet magic.

All the things you love about granny squares are also true of crocheted circles, triangles, hexagons, and stars. Motifs of any shape are fun, creative, addictive, and a perfect way to use up small bits of yarn.

Play with colors and shapes. Refine your hooking skills. Sew your tiny masterpieces into trendy wearables and soft home goods. Piece dozens together to make blankets, wraps, and tote bags. These 144 motifs will go wherever your imagination leads.

About the Author
Edie Eckman is the author of The Crochet Answer Book and a nationally known teacher, designer, writer, and editor in both the crochet and knitting worlds. Her designs and techniques have been published in a variety of magazines and booklets. She lives in Waynesboro, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Three and a half, really.
There are a few things I like about this book. The fact that it is spiral bound is very nice. And naturally I was drawn to its concept: different motifs: triangles, circles, hexagons, "weird" shapes... I'm an avid square-crocheter, and I've been looking forward to moving into other motifs.

My main problem with this book is its lack of examples on completed projects. The book does include a section of cute doodled examples of what to do with motifs (put them on flip-flops; sew them together for a rug; line them up across the chest of a sweater) but there is not a single photo, not a single example of an actual project completed using motifs from this book. Which is very disappointing to me. I love getting inspiration for projects by flipping through crafting books, and seeing the different colours used. This book will give you nice ideas for individual motifs and that is all.

I think the book would have done better to acknowledge that because you're making unusual motifs, putting them together in unusual and creative ways and combinations is part of the fun. I also did not find the author's repetitive choice of colours inspiring. The cover picture is great, but inside I found it lacking.

There are some nice motifs in this book, and I would suggest it to people who would like a straight-up how-to book. But if you're looking for a book that will inspire through its use of varied colour and finished product ideas, this will leave you disappointed.

New Motfis that will Inspire
This is a great crochet book. As an avid, experienced crocheter, most of the books I buy are so-so or plain awful. This book delivers.

PROS:
1) Easy to read and use. Clear large colorful photos (motifs made up in easy to see yarns) and large easy to read type on a spiral bound book, for flat, no flip pages. Large diagrams and well written instructions. Love having both to go by.
2) Creative and unusual. Lots and lots of new motifs here in all sorts of shapes, from the traditional square to decorative motifs, like the star fish. Well organized layout by shapes.
3) Nice introduction with hints for use, and even aids for making up your own motifs. Well done.
4) Thankfully, the first half of the book is not dedicated to learning how to crochet. Sorry beginners, but there are tons of learn how to crochet books, and I hate spending my money on a pattern book that spends more time showing me how then letting me get at it. Yes, there are charts and a few reminders, and even a glossary, but it's not overdone.

CONS:
Okay not cons, I love this book, more like a wish list.
I wish there were more squares. I am in need of new motifs for things that must be square, (hint: Title "Beyond-the-Square") and this book is chockfull of motifs, but fewer squares. There are a fair amount, but not as many as I would have liked.

I wish there were photos of projects. Yes, the book will inspire you, and there are a few pages with cutesy, colored ink drawings, but no actual photos of projects. Just for the sake of eye-candy, because the colored motifs are so striking, I would have loved to have drooled over a few photos of put together projects.

I wish the motifs had names, titles. It's a trend in books to label patterns by number, but it is an art craft book, let's have some names. I can remember names, but it's hard for me to remember "Oh, yeah I want to make number 72 or was that 27?"

Summary: Great book, creative, colorful, fun, and well written. I have made up two motifs so far, and I am very pleased.

Fun to look at, fun to do
I bought this book because the cover was pretty, really - and that's not a bad reason at all, because the excellent color pictures continue inside. But there are many other reasons to like the book.

I crochet a lot of baby afghans and wedding afghans and shawls, and yeah, I got tired of the plain old granny square oh, about 30 years ago - but I keep on doing it because it's easy to do and because it's a great way to use up scraps of color. Well, this book gives me lots more ways to use up small quantities of leftover yarn, and many of the motifs are as easy as granny squares, so I'll be able to do a couple to learn them, then do them on autopilot, where I don't need to look at the pattern any more, or even at the yarn - so I can do them in the dark, at symphony concerts and movies and on long car rides. Motifs are also handy for those kinds of times, because you don't have a single huge crocheted something that you have to haul around with you and that starts taking up the seat next to you once you're more than half done.

Some of the circular motifs will become coasters without any sewing together needed, and they can also become the bottom of bottle cozies or can cozies ("koozies"), or, in a larger gauge and larger hook and cotton yarn, become trivets for your table. But the hexagons are my favorites - not only do they make good coasters, but they make lovely bedspreads with edges full of little points, like prairie points - make one just slightly larger than the top of the bed, so that the points just hang over the edge. Motif #54 is every bit as easy to do as a granny square - think of it as a granny hexagon - and think of producing a crocheted throw or spread that resembles a "grandmother's flower garden" quilt pattern! If you want fewer color changes so you can make these while watching TV or otherwise doing two things at once, motifs 31, 32, and 33 have only two colors.

The triangle motifs require a bit more fudging and stretching to make them have exactly straight edges and fit together the way quilt pieces would; I plan to use these triangles more in a freeform manner, with circles and odd shapes combined to make a large regular shape out of many small irregular ones.

And - surprise! - there are squares as well, and things that have four corners although not straight sides, such as motif #94, which would fit in a square but is sort of a four-petalled flower.

And the irregular shapes - well, my favorite is the oval #125, which looks just like a miniature braided rug, and so will make lots of cute little "mug rugs" as coasters.

In short, a wealth of ideas, motifs from easy to advanced, sure to provide lots of satisfaction even though there are not any complete patterns for afghans or garments.