3 posts tagged “book review”

Everyday Crochet: Wearable Designs Just for You can maybe be best described as a collection of themes and variations. Doris Chan starts with a few basic garments (a tank, a cardigan, a vest, a pullover), and then alters them, playing with gauge, material, and design details to create different garments (the tank can become a nightgown; the pullover is made into a snuggly-warm sweatshirt and a cute, lacy crop top).

The designs, in general, are fairly basic - Chan set out to provide garments that could become wardrobe staples, and I think she succeeded. (There are a couple that you'd need a certain style to pull off, though). Most of the garments are available in a huge range of sizes - the basic tank goes from 30" to 52" finished bust - and there are also hints given for adding shaping to garments. I think there's something in here for everyone from the Hip Young Crocheter to the Soccer Mom to the Traditionalist Grandma.

Also included are a handful of crocheted belts and instructions for turning two shank buttons into the link-style closures the cardigans call for.

On the other hand, I was almost a bit disappointed with Crochet Me, maybe because I was expecting something...different? Or maybe just because pretty much none of the garments would work with my body; the size range generally fits a 30"-42" bust, so even the couple designs I liked, I'd have to scale up myself, and some of the styles are guaranteed to elicit a "yes" to "does this make me look fat?".

They were definitely aiming for the Hip Young end of the crocheter spectrum, and pretty much hit it; no surprise, if you're familiar with the original incarnation of crochetme.com, since most of the designers were regular contributors there. There's a wide variety of patterns - wearables, two bags (both were, I have to admit, cool - a felted messenger bag with a nifty gimmick to it, and one of the more artistic mesh market bags I've seen), and home decor (neither towel toppers nor TP cozies, of course!). There's technical instructions for a few of the more unusual techniques (Tunisian and tapestry - making a point of the one seemingly-trivial-but-actually-important detail that makes a difference between your tapestry crochet looking hot and your tapestry crochet looking crappy) and a quick reference to some other things you can do with yarn and a crochet hook that didn't come up in the context of the book.

To summarize: I would recommend Everyday Crochet to almost anyone, and it's going on my Amazon.com wishlist; Crochet Me is not for me, but it may be for you.

IA few years ago, I picked up The Cross Stitcher's Bible, by Jane Greenoff.  I've found the book to be absolutely indispensable - the edition I have is a trade-sized paperback, not even all that many pages, and yet it still manages to include information about pretty much everything you could ever want to know about cross stitch, from the basics to using different fabrics and fibers for artistic effect to blackwork to beads and charms to "OMG how the hell do I do that fancy stitch?" - plus, a nice selection of patterns that show off all these wonderful skills you're picking up from the book.

Jane Greenoff will not hold your hand and your liquid courage while you make your first cuts in Hardanger. But she will tell you exactly how you're supposed to do it.

I was pretty thrilled when I found out there was an accompanying book of projects - I'd really liked most of the patterns in the book. And PaperbackSwap.com came through for me; a couple weeks ago one showed up in my mailbox.

All in all, it was disappointing; it's a much larger hardcover, and if you look at the table of contents, there are indeed a lot of projects listed - but somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of them amount to "Stitch a small motif or two from this bigger project, and finish it as a notecard or gift tag." I could have done that myself.  And the bigger projects are mostly very, very traditional. On the bright side, sometimes I'm in the mood for traditional...the two big (5"x28") band samplers are just gorgeous.

That said, if I'd seen this book in the bookstore, the most likely outcome would have been a bad case of buyer's remorse. I would have thought "ooh, pretty" and brought it home - and then been disappointed at how little actual pretty there was. The cover price is $28 (or was at the time my copy was printed - it's a British edition, so it's quite likely more now), and if I had $28 in my "ooh, pretty" budget, I think I could get a better pretty-per-dollar from another book.

So to sum up: Cross Stitcher's Bible, indispensible reference material. Cross Stitcher's Bible Project Book, if you love that kind of thing, and/or can get a copy cheap.

Alice Starmore's older books are a) widely considered true classics in the knitting field, b) not just merely out of print, but truly most sincerely out of print, and never likely to be in print again, and c) heinously expensive on the used book market; they can go for upwards of $100 on eBay or Amazon's marketplace.

When I discovered that my local public library has copies of several of them, I just had to investigate further, and the Fair Isle book, detailing the colorwork garments peculiar to the Shetland Islands of Scotland, was the first one that came up on my request list. And so I share my thoughts with you...