Cat Mad Crochet

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

And now for The Beaded Edge 2 review! I love crochet beadwork, but it is fiddly and slow and I don’t do it often. Both books in The Beaded Edge series are very inspirational for me, and I love looking at the designs even if I rarely attempt them. 

Midori Nishida’s second book about crochet beadwork edging is really superior to her first. The designs on the cover are all presented in the book and all of the designs are done fully in crochet! The first book, and this is probably a publisher thing and not an author thing, had images on the cover that were not in the book. Many people were disappointed by this, which I totally get, so the second book corrects this faux pas. Everything you see on the cover is explained in the book.

In the first book, several of the designs were straight beadwork without a single bit of crochet. Of course, this doesn’t make them unusable, but it does require different skills. This time around, all of the patterns are done in crochet. Some patterns are more bead forward while others are more crochet forward, but they all use threaded beads and a crochet hook to create them. For me this is important because I have no beading skills beyond what I can accomplish with a hook to guide my way. 

There are a total of 26 beaded edgings and a little bonus flower in this book. This is double the number of crochet patterns in the first book. There are designs using just a few beads, as in the Red Hot Peppers design, or you can work with mostly beads as in the Mandarin Oranges and Blossoms design. The Soap Bubbles design from the last book has evolved into Popping Soap Bubbles, which is a lovely, large shell-like design featuring circles of beads. 

There are a few project suggestions and a nice discussion of Oya design and history that does include some wonderful designs not shown in the book. The ladies who made these works of art are truly masters and their fine handwork is really inspiring. 

The author walks you through the Raspberry design in great detail, which is a nice primer for how the other patterns in the book both work and can be used. Each design includes a list of materials and diagrams with detailed explanations and tips. None of the patterns are written out in traditional crochet notation. If you cannot read a charted pattern, this book will be hard for you to use. There is a good discussion of tools, threads, and beads, which should help avoid erroneous purchases and frustrations beyond difficulties with chart reading. 

Midori Nishida has produced a beautiful book of crocheted beaded edgings that would lend a sense of glamour and beauty to so many projects. If you are in the market for only one beaded edge book, get this one, and skip her first book. There are more stitch patterns in this book and all of the patterns are truly crocheted. Of course, if you have the money, get the first one, too. 

As of the time of writing, this book, like the first, is out of print. It seems like well treated, used copies are available at fairly reasonable rates online or perhaps hidden in the edges of a really cool used bookstore that you probably shouldn’t tell other people about.