Making a Crochet Pattern Book

Craft: The Crochet Book: A Gift

Here is a great Christmas gift that you can work on from now until Christmas. It is a crochet book for a new or old crocheter. Since it is made on your computer it would be easy to make duplicate copies and if you are a crocheter like me, it would be fun just looking at all those patterns. Now is the time to start this project as most everything you need is on sale for back to school prices.

Now I love to crochet and I love the Internet. How do the two come together, do you say? Well if you have ever googled crochet patterns, you know there are at least a million of them out there. I always am saving crochet patterns to my computer. So I came up with this idea for my best friend's little girl who was just learning how to crochet and wanted patterns for different stitches and also patterns for easy projects as she was tired of making pot holders and scarves. She wanted to learn how to make afghans so I copied about a dozen or so and put them together and put them in a notebook for her. You could also do this with knit patterns for your favorite knitter or for a boy, why not make an origami book with instructions for folding different things. This is also a book that she can add on to herself or you can keep adding to it for her.

Materials

• computer
• printer with black and colored ink
• a word processing program
• notebook
• copy paper for your printer
• page protectors (optional)
Advertisement


• dividers for your notebook
• basic computer skills
• crochet hooks (optional)
• tape measure (optional)
• yarn (optional)

Instructions

You have to have the knowledge to cut and paste, but that is pretty easy. You highlight what you want to copy, right click your mouse and click on save as or copy. You can copy text or pictures. Open up Word if you are using it and drop it in. Now if you are using a program like Works you may have to copy the pictures separately but that is no problem. Once you have copied them or saved them to your computer you can copy and paste them right into your page.

Pick a subject like baby clothes for the new mom or afghans or hats or anything you think they might like. Now go to Google and Google your subject. Once you have found patterns that you like copy and paste them into Word or your word processing program. Some patterns that you may like will come in PDF (Portable Document File) that you will need Adobe PDF reader for but you can get this for free right off the Internet. In that case all you have to do is print them out. Google basic crochet instructions also and you can copy the basic instructions to go in the front of the book.

Get a notebook with the clear cover so you can personalize your album. In a big pretty font make a page with your recipients name such as Suzie's Crochet Corner or some thing cute like that. Put in your page dividers. Print out your pages on colored or white paper and put them in the clear page protectors. The clear plastic page protectors are great because if she needs to keep track of what row she is on she can use a grease pencil to mark it off, and the page can be cleaned with a paper towel. I added some blank notebook pages in the back in case she wanted to write notes.

One Internet site I would highly recommend for this project would be Lion brand Yarns. You have to register for the site, but they have a stitch selector that gives you a bunch of different stitches that you can include in your book. Add a page of tips and tricks, which you can find on Thriftyfun. Just use the search engine to find the article of crochet tips and tricks. Also you may want to number your pages and make a table of contents or an index in the back. Now your book is done.

For my gift, I added some yarn and a complete set of hooks. I put the hooks in the front pocket of the notebook, which made it really nice when I wrapped it up. I also but in a small tape measure so she could learn to measure her gauge.

Happy Hunting!

Comments