Baby Crochet Design: Hats and Booties
By: Graziana Materassi
Rating: 5 of 5
This is a lovely book of fairly easy to crochet baby hats and booties. It was originally published during 2014 in Italy by Graziana Materassi and has been translated and published here for the first time in 2015. The instructions follow US conventions for stitches and hook sizes. The rolled hat designs show a definite European flair and are perfect for a baby as they are not too close fitting.
I would suggest this book for an experienced beginner and above because of the lack of instructions and the size and type of yarn that is being used. Cotton can be a little tricky to work with because it has no give. You will also be working with a smaller hook than I suggest for a brand-new beginner. When I teach crochet, I like to start with a worsted weight and a size G/H hook so that the crocheter doesn’t have to struggle to see what goes where.
The patterns are designed for cotton fingering yarn but certainly could be adapted for other yarns, too, just be aware that it may change the gauge of the project and make the hat/booties larger than expected. The book does not list the exact products used.
The projects are all quite cute and each hat has a matching set of booties/sandals for baby. There is a small tutorial in the front of the book about sizing the hats anywhere from newborn to adult sizes (that way you and baby can be matching.) The projects include: strawberry, frog, pineapple, elf, lily of the valley, green apple with caterpillar, ladybug, sun with mimosa blooms, ducky, rooster, bee, piggy, owl, hipster, eggplant, kitty (puss in booties), and city mouse/country mouse.
These projects are so very cute. I have a new granddaughter arriving in a few months and I have to make a couple of these hats for both her and her older brother to wear.
The instructions are straightforward and there is an abbreviation chart at the beginning of the book. It is not comprehensive as I already noted that a slip stitch is abbreviated (sl st) but is not shown in the chart. There may be others but the abbreviations follow accepted norms and are not difficult for the crocheter to decipher.
The advanced reader copy I am reviewing does not have instructions as to basic stitches, so in order to use this book, you will need to know how to do the following crochet: chain stitch, slip stitch, single crochet, double crochet, half double crochet, triple crochet, single crochet 2 together, and how to increase/decrease. These are fairly basic crochet and tutorials can be easily found online as well as in most beginner crochet books.
I received a digital ARC copy of this book from the publisher, Dover Publications, via Netgalley.
