Mar
okay so bookmark patterns are actually perfect for gifts
I made like fifteen of these back in spring 2022 when my sister was getting married and I needed bridesmaid gifts but didn’t wanna spend a fortune. Bookmarks are fast, maybe 30-45 minutes each depending on the pattern, and people actually use them which is more than I can say for some crochet stuff.
The thing that drove me nuts though was weaving in ends. Every single bookmark has at least two ends to deal with and when you’re making a bunch of them it gets old real fast. I was watching Succession at the time and I’d just zone out during the weaving part.
Basic Rectangle Bookmark
So the most straightforward one is just a rectangle. You’re gonna chain like 8-10 stitches depending on how wide you want it. I usually do 9 because it feels right. Then you just single crochet back and forth until it’s about 7 inches long. Maybe 6 if you want it shorter.
I used Lily Sugar’n Cream for a bunch of these because I had it lying around and it’s cheap. The cotton holds up better than acrylic for bookmarks honestly because it doesn’t get as fuzzy. Red Heart Super Saver works too but it pills after a while.
You can add a tassel at the bottom by cutting like 6 strands of yarn about 8 inches long, folding them in half, pulling the loop through the bottom of the bookmark and then pulling the ends through the loop. My cat kept trying to attack the tassels while I was making them which was annoying but also kinda funny.
The Granny Stripe Version
This one looks fancier but it’s basically the same difficulty. You chain a multiple of 3 plus 2, so like 11 or 14 stitches. Then you do the granny stripe pattern which is like… okay so you skip 2 chains, do 3 double crochets in the next chain, skip 2, single crochet in the next, and repeat. It creates these little cluster things.
I made a bunch of these in different colors with Caron Simply Soft because the color range is huge and they were on sale at Michael’s. The purple one I made looked really good, the yellow one was kinda meh.
The pattern works up faster than single crochet because you’re using double crochets. Maybe 25 minutes if you’re not getting distracted. You just repeat the row pattern until it’s long enough.
Lace-ish Patterns That Look Harder Than They Are
So there’s this pineapple-ish bookmark pattern that I found somewhere online and it looks really delicate but it’s just chains and double crochets arranged in a specific way. You need thinner yarn for this though, like a size 10 crochet thread or fingering weight yarn.
I used Aunt Lydia’s crochet thread in white for one of these and it looked really elegant. Used a 1.5mm hook which is tiny and kinda hurt my hands after a while but whatever. The pattern is basically clusters of double crochets separated by chain spaces, and you decrease on the edges to make it taper slightly.
Here’s the thing though – if you mess up a stitch in lace patterns it’s super obvious. With a solid single crochet bookmark you can fudge it and nobody notices. With lace, one missed chain space and the whole thing looks wonky.
Adding Beads Because Why Not
You can thread beads onto your yarn before you start and then slide them up into your work as you go. I did this for a bookmark I made my friend who’s really into sparkly stuff. Got some cheap plastic beads from the craft store and used them with some shimmery acrylic yarn, maybe it was Red Heart Shimmer or something similar.
The process is you thread like 20-30 beads onto your yarn ball before starting, then when you want a bead you slide it up close to your work and crochet the next stitch, trapping the bead in place. They sit best on chain stitches.
It takes longer because you’re fussing with beads but the end result looks more expensive than it actually is which is the whole point of making gifts instead of buying them right?
Width Considerations That I Learned The Hard Way
Don’t make bookmarks wider than like 2 inches. I made one that was probably 3 inches wide back when I first started and it was too bulky for actual books. It kept falling out or making the book not close properly. The sweet spot is between 1.5 and 2 inches.
If you’re doing a pattern with a specific stitch count and it’s coming out too wide, just use a smaller hook or fewer starting chains. I dropped from a 5mm hook to a 4mm hook for some bookmarks and it made a big difference.
The Chevron Bookmark Thing
There’s a chevron pattern that looks really cool for bookmarks. You’re basically doing increases and decreases in a regular pattern to create the zigzag. It’s not hard but you gotta pay attention to where you are in the pattern or it gets messed up.
I used Bernat Softee Cotton for these because I wanted bright colors and that yarn comes in really saturated shades. The chevron pattern uses more yarn than a straight rectangle though, so keep that in mind if you’re trying to use up scraps.
The pattern goes something like: chain 15, then in the first row you do single crochet increases in certain spots and decreases in others. I’d have to look up the exact pattern because I don’t remember it off the top of my head but there’s a bunch of free patterns online.
Yarn Weight Actually Matters Here
So I’ve made bookmarks with everything from crochet thread to worsted weight yarn and honestly the medium weights work best. Sport or DK weight is ideal. Worsted weight is okay but it can be too thick. Bulky weight is definitely too thick unless you’re making a bookmark for like… a photo album or something instead of a regular book.
Crochet thread makes beautiful delicate bookmarks but they take forever and you need good lighting because the stitches are so small. I made one while visiting my parents in summer 2024 and my mom kept asking what I was making because she couldn’t see the stitches from across the room.
Lion Brand Jeans yarn is actually perfect for bookmarks if you want something durable. It’s cotton with a tight twist so it doesn’t split while you’re working with it. Comes in nice muted colors too.
Blocking Makes A Difference But I’m Lazy About It
You’re supposed to block bookmarks so they lay flat and the edges are straight. I do this maybe half the time. When I do block them I just wet them, squeeze out the water, pin them to a foam board in the right shape, and let them dry overnight.
For cotton yarn blocking really does help because cotton can get a little wonky. For acrylic it doesn’t matter as much because acrylic doesn’t really hold a blocked shape that well anyway unless you steam block it and that’s more effort than I’m willing to put in for a bookmark.
The bookmarks I made for my sister’s wedding I actually did block because I wanted them to look professional. Used Knit Picks Dishie yarn which is cotton and it blocked really nicely. The colors stayed bright too after getting wet which doesn’t always happen with cheaper cotton.
Corner Designs And Starting From The Corner
There’s this technique where you start from one corner and increase along two edges to make a triangle, then decrease back down to make a bookmark shape. It creates diagonal stitches which looks different from the usual horizontal rows.
I tried this once and it was fine but not really faster or better than just making a rectangle. The diagonal thing is neat if you’re doing stripes because they go diagonal instead of horizontal but otherwise I don’t see the point.
Variegated Yarn Is Your Friend
When you want a bookmark to look interesting but don’t wanna change colors every few rows, variegated yarn is the way to go. Just pick a simple stitch pattern and let the yarn do the work.
I used Lion Brand Mandala for some bookmarks and the color transitions looked really cool even though I was just doing basic single crochet. The cakes are big though so you’ll have a ton of yarn left over, but you can make like 10-15 bookmarks from one cake depending on how thick you make them.
Caron Cakes also works for this. The color changes are more abrupt than Mandala but some people prefer that look.
Edging Options If You Wanna Get Fancy
After you finish the main part of the bookmark you can add an edging round to make it look more finished. Single crochet around the whole thing is the simplest option. Just work sc evenly along the long edges and do 3 sc in each corner to keep it flat.
Picot edging is also nice and it’s not hard. You just do like sc, chain 3, sl st back into the first chain to make a little bump, then skip a stitch and sc again. Repeat around. Creates a delicate edge that looks more complicated than it is.
I made a bookmark with shell edging once, where you do like 5 dc in one stitch to make a shell shape, skip stitches, sc, repeat. It looked pretty but also made the bookmark wider and kinda ruffled so I’m not sure it was the best choice for a functional bookmark.
Stiffening Options That I Have Mixed Feelings About
Some people stiffen their bookmarks with fabric stiffener or diluted glue. I tried this exactly once with some sugar water mixture I found online and it made the bookmark stiff but also kinda sticky and weird. Wouldn’t recommend.
If you want a stiffer bookmark just use a tighter gauge or a smaller hook. That gives you structure without making it crusty. Or use crochet thread which naturally makes a firmer fabric than regular yarn.
Ribbon Integration For Mixed Media Look
You can weave ribbon through chain spaces if your pattern has them. Makes it look more gift-y without much extra effort. I did this with some bookmarks where I worked the main part in single crochet but added a row of chain spaces near the top, then wove thin satin ribbon through after.
Got the ribbon from the dollar store so it was cheap. You could also use that grosgrain ribbon that’s stiffer. The ribbon adds a pop of contrasting color or texture which is nice.
Just make sure the ribbon is colorfast if you’re giving the bookmark as a gift because some cheap ribbon bleeds when it gets wet and that would suck if someone’s book got stained.
How Many To Make For Gifts
If you’re making bookmarks as gifts for multiple people I’d say start at least two weeks before you need them. Even though each one is quick, making a bunch in a row gets tedious. I spread it out, maybe make 2-3 per night while watching TV or whatever.
For my sister’s wedding thing I needed twelve and I gave myself like three weeks. Ended up finishing with time to spare but I’m glad I didn’t wait until the last minute because weaving in all those ends took longer than I expected.
You can also make them in batches where you do all the main crocheting one day, all the tassels another day, all the weaving in ends another day. Assembly line style. More efficient but also more boring.
Packaging Matters More Than You’d Think
Just handing someone a bookmark is fine but if you put it in a little cellophane bag with a ribbon or attach it to a book with a nice tag it looks way more like a real gift. I got cellophane bags from Amazon, like 100 for a few dollars.
You can also attach a little card that says something about the bookmark being handmade or includes a book quote or whatever. Makes it seem more thoughtful even though the bookmark itself took you less than an hour.
For the wedding bookmarks I printed little tags that said “A new chapter begins” or something cheesy like that and tied them on with baker’s twine. People seemed to like it.
Scrap Yarn Is Perfect For This Project
Honestly bookmarks are the best way to use up all those partial balls of yarn you have lying around. You need so little yarn per bookmark, maybe 20-30 yards depending on the pattern and yarn weight.
I’ve made bookmarks from leftover yarn from blankets, scarves, whatever. As long as you have enough for one bookmark it works. You can even do striped bookmarks if you have multiple colors of scraps and just change colors every few rows.
The only time scrap yarn doesn’t work great is if it’s really fuzzy or novelty yarn that’s hard to see your stitches in. Stick with smooth yarn for bookmarks because you want clean stitch definition.
Mistakes I’ve Made That You Can Avoid
Made a bookmark once that was too long, like 10 inches, and it was annoying because it stuck out too far from the book. Keep them around 6-7 inches unless you know someone uses huge books.
Also made one with fringe instead of a tassel and the fringe got tangled and messy almost immediately. Tassels hold up better.
Used really dark navy blue yarn for a bookmark and couldn’t see my stitches while working on it at night. Had to wait until daytime to finish it. Use lighter colors if you crochet in dim lighting or you’ll go cross-eyed trying to see what you’re doing.
I also tried making a bookmark with a wire inside once to make it hold its shape better but the wire poked through after a while and that seemed dangerous for a book. Don’t put wire in bookmarks.
