Review: Craftcycle by Heidi Boyd

Craftcycle: 100+ Earth-Friendly Projects and Ideas for Everyday Living
by
Heidi Boyd

Let me just say I love this book for it’s comprehensiveness.

It covers all sorts of crafts (and for us hobby surfers this is a big plus!)

It includes excellent illustrations, photographs, patterns and directions so that even the most beginner crafter is sure to have all the guidance needed to complete a recycle craft project either exactly as the directions state or to veer off the path and truly make their own creation. To see a variation I made and an inside peek into Craftcycle pop on over here.

Also included are recipes, because we all have to keep our strength up for tons of up-cycling.

From the Publisher (North Light Books):

“Inside Craftcycle, you will find a mix of over 100 ideas for crafts, recipes, sustainable living ideas and construction projects – all organized by season to offer year-round green living. Within each chapter, there are larger projects to build, quick crafts to complete using basic materials or recycled items, seasonally appropriate tips, and recipes using seasonal ingredients. Detailed diagrams accompany the larger-scale projects, while the basic crafts feature step-by-step photographs and illustrations, making them accessible for the entire family.
Heidi Boyd is the author of seven North Light craft books. She brings her simple and pretty approach to green crafting in this book. Her husband Jon Boyd, an architect, is certified in sustainable building practices, and he brings his expertise to this book. He provides the larger-scale simple wood construction projects, all of which are be accompanied by clear diagrams.”

To see tons more of Heidi’s creativity pop on over to mycraftivity.com.

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For years now Berroco has been releasing a tiny set of Christmas ornament knitting patterns, often modeled on human-sized clothes, called Minutia. The ones for this year haven’t come out yet, but somehow I missed last year’s so I wanted to share them, as well as a fun little twist they offered.

The general 2025 Minutia patterns include a circular yoke sweater, a two-color stocking and a ribbed earflap hat. They’re super cute and perfect for using little (or should I say minute?) amounts of yarn left over from other projects. Make them in Christmas colors or whatever you have on hand. Even if you don’t have exactly the same yarn weight, you can still make these cute additions to your holiday decor.

But what really caught my eye while I was on the Berocco site was the Team Colors Minutia, which are actually different patterns so I’m not even sure when they were released, but they are definitely worth talking about.

These patterns include a little raglan sweater with stripes and a stocking cap with contrasting pom pom.

They call for sport weight yarn, but again you could use sock or DK if that’s what you have in the right colors. And here the right colors are important because you’re stitching your team colors.

Or anyone else’s team colors.

I immediately thought that this would be an amazing holiday gift for someone who you never know what to get but who also happens to like sports. Or has gone to a university that has colors.

Another option would be to leave off the stripes and add a number in duplicate stitch if you or the person you’re knitting for has a favorite player. Or stitch a letter or a tiny version of the team logo on the front. There are lots of options!

If you make these, I’d love to hear what you did with them!

[Photo: Berroco]

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