Hello my dear readers! I am enjoying this Saturday very much, it is sunny outside after a lot of rain, my shawl is being blocked as I write (so excited!), I bought a lovely tea from Eteaket that is just sooo nice and I am looking forward to an evening of relaxing and catching up with shows (anyone else caught up with Outlander? Episode 3 here I come!).

I wanted to talk about books today and share which ones have been useful to me in this crochet journey of mine. In a world that is getting more and more digitalised it is hard to hold on to paper books sometimes, but not all books are digital so I still use paper books to learn about new techniques or use as reference. I will do another post with online resources I use for crochet (including ebooks), specifically for finding crochet stitches so keep an eye out for it if you are interested.

Before I get on to it I just want to mention that I got access to all these books (except one) through my local library, so make sure you check your library to see what they have in their catalogue.

The first book I want to mention is Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia, by Robyn Chachula.

If you don’t have a crochet stitches dictionary I really recommend this one, books like this really open up a world of possibilities for new projects. When I first got it I used to try stitches out by making a cowl with the ones I liked, a simple and easy project that allows you to see how the stitch feels and looks and that you can actually wear after you are done. I like this book because it has loads of lovely stitches, it is organised into clear chapters (including one for tunisian crochet stitches), the instructions are clear and you get a chart for each stitch as well. You also get granny squares, motifs and edgings so you are covered for all crochet stitch necessities!

Next, as you may have guessed, I have a tunisian crochet book: Tunisian Crochet: The look of knitting with the ease of crocheting by Sharon Hernes Silverman. This was the book that first introduced me to this technique. I was browsing in the crafts section of my library when I saw the title and was instantly intrigued: the look of knitting but without the hassle of knitting? You may disagree completely with me but I have always found crochet easier than knitting, and a lot more forgiving with mistakes as well. I do like how knitting looks so this sounded like the perfect combination and it is! If you follow my blog you know I love tunisian crochet and it was this book that taught me how to do it (plus a few youtube videos here and there). It also includes patterns for projects, and even though I didn’t like them all, my first ever tunisan crochet project was a lovely cushion from this book. So if you find this in your library catalogue I would recommend you take a look.

My other current obsession at the moment is fair isle crochet. Even though I haven’t found any books for this technique with crochet you don’t really need them with all the great books for fair isle knitting. The principle is the same: create a chart and knit it or crochet it, so if you are looking to create your own charts to crochet I would recommend the following:

They all have loads of different charts that you can mix and adapt and they also show knitted swatches of each. I particularly like the first one, 150 Scandinavian Knitting Designs by Mary Jane Mucklestone, it has some lovely charts to play with.

So there you have it! Hope you find it useful and that you find some of these in your local library, go have a nosey 🙂

Now that the shawl is finished I will post the pattern for it soon, I will also post about this new Craftsy class I am taking and the lovely yarn and hooks I bought because of it!

Have a great weekend 😀

x

Sol