This entry was posted on 7/24/2009 3:01 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
I'm intrigued by this new book—DIY Afghans. It's a how-to crochet book featuring patterns for eight gorgeous crocheted afghans that comes with an interactive CD that allows crocheters to create their own designs!
Designer Mary Beth Temple shares her easy technique for interpreting quilt patterns into crocheted afghans in DIY Afghans. With this book and CD combo, I should be able to simply create my own designs without drawing a multitude of squares or cutting and arranging templates. Each of Mary Beth’s afghans is constructed by using a combination of elements. And those elements are available for experimentation on the CD. They include small one-color and two-color blocks, large blocks, panels, and edgings. The system even allows the crocheter to represent color values and orientation for each square. The design possibilities are endless.
You might remember Mary Beth Temple from her humorous essays on crochet and knitting, as well as her informative articles, which have appeared in numerous magazines. She is also the author of The Secret Language of Knitters and Hooked for Life: Adventures of a Crochet Zealot. Mary Beth’s experience as a costumer for dance, film, television, and Broadway naturally inspires her design work, but her knowledge of crochet goes back further into her past.
“My mother and sisters were very crafty—they knitted, crocheted, did needlepoint—and I wanted to be like them. Later on, I got hooked on the idea of designing because of my designer friends at the Crochet Guild of America. They were so fired up about the work they were doing that I wanted to do it, too! So I got started creating crochet patterns.”
