Review Archives at Jessie At Home

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Fun with Tunisian Fair Isle!

If you receive my newsletter, you’ve already been given a head’s up about today’s post! I have started a new endeavor, I am a guest writer on CGOA Now! the official blog of the Crochet Guild Of America. Yesterday was my first post, a book review of Fair Isle Tunisian Crochet by Brenda Bourg. I’d like to tell you all about it, so pop on over to the review and see what I thought.

If you didn’t get the head’s up, you must not be getting my weekly newsletter. You can sign up here.

I decided this book review was a really good excuse to learn to do fair isle Tunisian. I used an excerpt from one of the patterns in the book to make a little purse:

That’s it before I seemed it, inside and out, and here

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Big Hook Rag Crochet Review and Giveaway

I love big hook crochet! Everything gets done so much quicker. You can make a giant rug in a just a few days, and a bag in a day. Well, my friend Dedri happens to feel the same way, and she even wrote a book about it! And what a book!

Big Hook Rag Crochet starts out with a very sweet introductions, goes on to present 25 fabulous patterns by 15 designers, and finishes up with a wonderful section which explains various methods of making rag yarn, and a thorough how-to of most of the sts used in the book.

As you may have figured out, I adore this book.

Lilla Rose flexies from Leah Fields - review by Jessie At Home

Leah & Lilla Rose a review & giveaway!

Hello my friends! I have a rebellious review and giveaway for you today!! My friend Leah has an online shop with Lilla Rose. I’ll let them explain what they make:

The Lilla Rose product line centers around unique, functional, and well made hair jewelry. From our flagship Flexi Hair Clip, we have expanded to Hair Sticks, the Flexi Oh!, Hairbands, and Bobby Pins. From there we rounded the line out with complimentarily designed You-Pins, and Badge Clips.

Well, I took a look at the Flexies (you can see them here), and as much as they looked so wonderful in hair, the rebel in me shouted “Shawl pins, these must be shawl pins!!!” Leah agreed. She also pointed out they would be great “wrapping” around knitting needles or crochet hooks. You could gift someone a nice skein of yarn, some hooks or needles, and a Flexi, all together making a fun scarf or shawl kit with a “pin”.

Yarn It Giveaway

Hello my friends! I have a fun review and giveaway for you today!!

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Cloudborn Fibers yarn review and giveaway

Happy Tuesday! As promised, I have a review and giveaway of Cloudborn Fibers yarn for you! Cloudborn Fibers is the new yarn line from Craftsy.

Over the past few days, I have been creating with the Baby Alpaca Bulky. I absolutely love it! It’s very soft and warm, great for the cold months coming. It has just enough fuzziness to give it that super soft look, but not

Unicorn Fibre Yarn Wash & Rinse Review

Hello my friends! I hope you had a fun and safe Halloween weekend!

Today I want to talk to you a bit about Unicorn Fibre and their yarn care line of products. These products are great for blocking your crochet and knit items, as well as cleaning and general care. They also work for cleaning yarnie family heirlooms!

When I first met the lovely ladies of Unicorn Fibre at the TNNA summer show several months back, my original intention was to share about the Pour Scour with you. Pour Scour is their product that is great for your super dirty jobs. Maybe you have a yellowing baby blanket that has been handed down for generations, a handmade afghan that you inherited from a smoker, your baby sweater that smells like the attic it was stored in, or maybe you spilled your glass of wine or mug of tea or coffee on your current work in progress. Pour Scour is the product you need for these situations! Now, I was planning on giving it a big old testing of all sorts of situations for you, but then plans changed.

As you know if you’re one of my regular readers, there was a bit of a soot disaster in my makeshift basement workroom a a couple months back.

You can see the line where I wiped my finger through the soot on one of my yarn shelves, you can

Clover Review and Small Giveaway

I’m in LOVE!!!

Don’t tell my husband…

OK, you can tell him, I’m pretty sure he won’t be jealous of a set of interchangeable knitting needles.

I hope…

When I attended the TNNA Summer 2015 Needlearts Trade Show last month, I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Butler, the national sales manager for Clover Needlecraft, Inc. We talked a bit, and he asked if I would review some of their new products, including their new bamboo interchangeable Takumi knitting needles. I agreed.

Now, I love to do reviews, but they also cause me a fair amount of stress. I feel an obligation to be honest to my readers. Not only is it in my nature, but it’s the ethical way to be. When I have to review an item, I always hope it will be great. I hate having to find tactful ways of pointing out flaws. And when the item is something as big as a new set of interchangeable knitting needles? Oh, my, do I worry!!

Worrying was awfully silly. These things are AMAZING!!! I have tried several kinds of interchangeable needles in the past. I already owned a full set of one brand, and bits and pieces of a few other brands; so I have an idea of what makes them good and bad. Let’s look at the various parts, and common worries.

First, the needles themselves. They are Takumi bamboo needles, if you have tried the brand before,

Crochet Essentials: Increases & Decreases with Tamara Kelly

I’m so excited that I get to review another Craftsy class taught by my friend Tamara Kelly of Moogly!

Crochet Essentials: Increases & Decreases is a fabulous class for anyone looking to learn more about…wait for it…increases and decreases. 😉

Actually, it is a wonderful class, and is useful to more than just beginners. Of course, if you are a beginner and want to understand various increases and decreases that you may run into in patterns, this is your class! It is also great for

WAK Crochet Kit Review and Giveaway

Hello there my friends! I have a fun company to introduce to you, along with a product review and a giveaway!

We Are Knitters is an international online knitting and fashion brand based out of Madrid, Spain with a strong online and offline presence throughout Europe. We Are Knitters’ product offerings includes a wide range of DIY knitting and crochet kits, which contain everything you need to knit or crochet your own unique garment or other item, including the yarn balls, wooden needles, pattern, sewing needle, and a We Are Knitters tag to sew into the finished product.

One thing I love about the site is the customer photos. As I was looking through the kits, it was so helpful to see the pictures of finished items for each kit made by actual customers. It’s one thing to sell a kit, it’s another to sell a kit that actually works! The customer pictures show that the kits work, and that is something I find rather useful to know, don’t you? 😉

When I was asked to review a crochet kit, I took a look through the available kits. I always have a pile of hooks, needles, notes, yarn balls, and various what~nots sitting on the couch next to me. The Chess Basket kit seemed to be the solution to that problem. I looked at the available colors and found an olive green that would look lovely on my couch!

The kit arrived very quickly for being shipped from abroad! It was so fun to

Quick & Easy Crochet Cowls

Tamara Kelly ~ the awesome designer behind Moogly ~ is now also a Craftsy instructor! Her first Craftsy class is Quick & Easy Crochet Cowls, sponsored by Lion Brand.

I enrolled for the class right away, and watched it last weekend. The class includes instruction and patterns for the 3 awesome cowls seen pictured throughout this post. The first is Amazing 45 Minute Cowl made with just one skein of Lion Brand Amazing yarn. This cowl is super quick and easy, and I love that Tamara takes the time to give lots of useful tips and tricks, both the kind that a new crocheter will love to learn, and the kind that can make a seasoned crocheter say “why didn’t I know that already!?”

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