Ultimate Guide to Soap Making

As you can probably tell Amazon is really good for cheap book downloads. I also found a book called the Ultimate Guide To Soap Making by Amanda McCarthy. Again adding to my dreams to make beauty products I jumped on this book. It is a free download on Kindle Unlimited or $1.05 on regular Kindle. 

This is a great starting book to see if you like soap making and it's a good starting book for cheap too.

Coloring Books For Adults: Vol 1

Next, I found a beautiful colouring book called Coloring Books For Adults Vol.1: 40 Stress Relieving and Relaxing Patterns. It is a free Kindle Unlimited download and only a $2.99 (CAN) download for the regular Kindle version or $7.77 for the Paperback version. I really recommend the Kindle version. You download the book and you can see all the patterns. You CAN NOT colour it in the Kindle App and CAN NOT print it from the app either but there is a link at the end of the book that you can print.

Smart Lotionmaking and Other Books

The next three things I got from Amazon, were about finding good deals. I bought a set of 3 romance novels called Romancing the Dead for free (Kindle Download). I also downloaded for free How to Write a Book From Outline to Finish Line, great way to help your writing skills. Finally for $0.01 (CAN), I got Smart Lotionmaking, I have never made lotions or any beauty products but I have always wanted to and for a penny, you can't go wrong with buying this digital book (Kindle version).

Elastic Cord

After Adult Colouring Books inspired me to find my creative side again, I started looking into other art projects and craft projects I would enjoy doing. And I found like colouring, jewelry making can be an adult thing also. I wasn't sure at first if I would like it and how much money I actually wanted to spend on it so I started off small. I got 10 rolls (mixed colours) of Elastic Cord Strong Stretchy Beading Thread String for $0.29 (CAN).

This was a great deal, I paid more in shipping than what I paid for the thread but it was worth it. Even if you don't use it for jewelry, you can find many uses for it and it was a good price. At this time it sells for $4.91 plus free shipping so that comes out to a few cents more expensive than what I paid but still worth it. 

Adding a Single Crochet Border

For some patterns in crochet, you will see them call for a border. This can be a simple border or a more decorative one, either way a border is a good way to finish off a project. I started crocheting a simple blanket for a friend's birthday. Just a plain old half double crochet blanket, no graph, no pattern just straight crocheting. Now that I finished the blanket, I want to add a simple border to give it a nice finishing touch. Since I have never done a border I used this video, to help me.

To start with I crocheted a simple Half Double Crochet Blanket with a starting chain of 150. I didn't count how many rows I did, I just know I ordered seven balls and used them all. I found this was a nice size, you may want it bigger or smaller depending on what you are making.

Completed Half Double Crochet Blanket

After finishing the blanket, just to add a little something and make it look more complete, I added a Single Crochet Border. A border like that is very easy to do, you want to start exactly where you finished (on your working side) and simply add another row to your project, in this case of single crochets. Once you finish the row and hit the corner you want to add three (3) single crochets to make the turn.

Once you start crocheting up the side you have to remember your stitch. With this blanket, because I used the Half Double Crochet stitch, each row counts as two, so you will have to do two single crochets per row (this also applies for a Double Crochet blanket with a single crochet border). Again, once you come to the corner you want to add three single crochets to the same corner stitch. Next you will be doing the starting chain, this will be slightly odd because it won't look like a normal stitch (like at the top), this will be what was left of the chain stitch after you stitched into it. (Simply single stitch like you normally would.) After that you will get to the corner again and go back up the final side. 

To finish the border off, you get back to the corner you started at. There is already one stitch here (your starting stitch), so you add only two (2) this time. Now you find that first stitch and make a slip stitch to finish everything off nicely. Once I cut the yarn and pulled it through the final stitch, I sewed in the starting and finishing tails. 

Knitting Abbreviations

Same with the Crochet Abbreviation, I was cleaning up my bookmarks on my browser and found this page I saved for later!

This list is from WillowYarn and I will add anything else to it if needed.

approx - Approximately
beg - Begin/Beginning
bo - Bind Off
cc - Contrasting Color
cdd -- sl 1, k2tog.psso
cm - Centimeter
cn - Cable Needle
co - Cast On
cont - Continue
dec - Decreases
dpn - Double Pointed Needles
inc - Increase
k - Knit
k2tog - Knit 2 stitches together
k3tog - Knit 3 stitches together
kfb - Knit in the Front and Back of the next Stitch
k-wise - Knitwise
m - Marker
m1 - Make 1
m1l - Make 1 Left
m1r - Make 1 Right
m1p - Make 1 Purl
mc - Main Color
p - Purl
pat - Pattern
pm - Place Marker
psso - Pass Slipped Stitch Over
p-wise - Purlwise
rem - Remain
rep - Repeat
rnd - Round(s)
rs - Right Side
s2kp - Slip 2 together, Knit 1, Pass Slipped Stitches over Knit Stitch
sk - Skip
skp - Slip, Knit, Pass Slipped Stitch Over
sk2p - Slip 1, Knit 2 Together, Pass Slip Stitch Over the Knit 2 Together
sl - Slip
slm - Slip Marker
ssk - Slip, Slip, Knit these 2 Stitches Together
st st - Stockinette Stitch
st - Stitch
tog - together
w&t - Wrap and Turn
ws - Wrong Side
wyib - With Yarn in Back
wyif - With Yarn in Front
yfwd - Yarn Forward
yo - Yarn Over

Crochet Abbreviations

Anyone who knows me know I keep everything! And the same goes with bookmarks on an internet browser. I save it for later and never get around to looking at it! So now as I try to clean up my browser I found 3 (yes three) different posts about Crochet Abbreviations that I saved a long time ago. Hopefully, this helps anyone struggling with the terms and reading patterns and it will help in my clean up process!

I am going to start with the blog I read at Mooglyblog.com and then add to the list as I go.

alt - Alternative/Alternate
beg - Begin/Beginning
bet - Between
blo - Back Loop Only
bp - Back Post
bpdc - Back Post Double Crochet
bpsc - Back Post Single Crochet
bptc - Back Post Treble Crochet
CA - Color A
CC - Contrasting Color
ch sp(s) - Chain Space(s)
cl - Cluster
cm - Centimeter
cont - Continue
csdc - Chainless Starting Double Crochet
dec - Decrease
inv dec - Invisible Decrease
dtr - Double Treble
edc - Extended Double Crochet
ehdc - Extended Half Double Crochet
esc - Extended Single Crochet
fdc - Foundation Double Crochet
fhdc - Foundation Half Double Crochet
flo - Front Loop Only
FO - Finish Object or Finish Off
fsc - Foundation Single Crochet
fp - Front Post
fpdc - Front Post Double Crochet
fpsc - Front Post Single Crochet
fptr - Front Post Treble Crochet
hbdc - Herringbone Double Crochet
HOTH - Hot Off The Hook
inc - Increase
ldc - Linked Double Crochet
lp(s) - Loops
ltr - Linked Treble Crochet
MC - Main Color
MC/ MR - Magic Circle/ Magic Ring
p - Picot
pm - Place Marker
prev - Previous
quadtr - Quadruple Treble
rem - Remaining
rep - Repeat
rnd - Round
RS - Right Side
rsc - Reverse Single crochet (Crab Sitich)
sk - Skip
sl st(s) - Slip Stitch(es)
sp(s) - Space(s)
st(s) - Stitch(es)
tbl - Through Back Loop
tch - Turning Chain
tog - Together
tr - Treble
trtr - Triple Treble
UFO - UnFinished Object
WIP - Work In Progress
WS - Wrong Side
yo - Yarn Over

Different Types of Stitches:
CH - Chain
SC - Single Crochet
DC - Double Crochet
HDC - Half Double Crochet
V ST - V Stitch
Blanket Stitch