The Beaded Edge by Midori Nishida and CRK design is one of those books that proves how much the boundaries blur in handicrafts and art. Combining crocheting with beads to make gorgeous edgings that can be used in sewing and to embellish other crafts.
The techniques range from doing a basic crocheted edging and adding in beads with a needle and thread to some wonderful designs with the beads crocheted in to the design.
If you've found crocheted ropes and single crochet designs too limiting, this book is a great example of how much is possible.
Loops of beads create fringe, pretty little butterflies and elegant scallops. The threads used are mostly cotton crochet threads with steel hooks. They are well photographed and applied to a bunch of projects to inspire uses. Cards, jeans, sweaters and felt ornaments are all among the suggested uses.
As a crocheter and beader, I love this book. Some of the edgings are made simply enough that once you have the beads threaded, the motifs can be repeated easily while watching television. One of my favorites is just that sort of motif. The Soap Bubbles design is all one color bead, and it's a design that works an inch at a time until it's long enough. The example shown is edging pockets on a pair of jeans, but I can just as easily imagine it as a fine edging on a pair of gloves.
There are photographs to show how the motifs of the edgings are made and how they progress, with the instructions in the back of the book. Each page has the page number for that pattern. The patterns are both in international crochet notation and in very clear American terminology text, with more photos to show how the piece is made and stringing diagrams. I prefer international charts to text for patterns, so that made me very happy.
The book also included a few pages on the inspiration for the edgings, Turkish "oya" edgings used to edge scarfs. There are some beautiful photographs of some of those edgings, and photographs from the author's trip to Turkey. These add a nice personal touch and history to the edgings.
You can get this book directly from the publisher, Interweave or from Amazon.com (affiliate link) by clicking the button below.



Interweave provided this review copy of The Beaded Edge to me free of charge.
To learn more about BellaOnline's review policy, please check our review policy.
Affiliate links in an article provide extra income to me personally. I provide them both as a service and as a way to help fund my own book addiction.