published by Leisure Arts, Little Rock, Arkansas, www. leisurearts.com, copyright 2012
Donna Kooler, Kooler Deign Studio, Inc, Pleasant Hill, CA, www.koolerdesign.com
isbn: 978-1-60900-393-7
I really like this book because I learned a lot just reading it. It has excellent drawings and pictures to illustrate the text. First there is an introduction to the concepts then patterns follow to illustrate or use the concepts. Patterns appear to be complete and written clearly in American abbreviations with occasional charts/symbols. The patterns are also rated by difficulty. I also like the very nicely organized and illustrated stitch pattern index at the end.
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(My notes)
contributors page; photo stylists, stitchers, models, creative director, editors, book design & production, project manager, writers, illustration, project designers, photography/color separator.
foreword
acknowledgements
table of contents
introduction
History
- A recent "old" technique
- Threads of history
- A Winter Gift (an early book of needlework patterns) Godey's Lady's Book
- Nun's Lace, "generic description of any lace produced by nuns and that before the mid-1800s none of it was crocheted."
- What took so long? "The reason may be that people preferred more economical fabric-creating techniques. Crochet uses an enormous amount of thread to produce fabric structures which can be more economically produced by the ancient techniques of netting, sprang, ....nalbinding,... knitting.
- A Wealth of Thread, 1770 spinning jenny, "saw cotton gin by Eli Whitney" "....cloth manufacturers could make cloth less expensively. And with the money saved on fabric, women could do something frivolous with thread."
- Wearing Wealth
- Where did hooks come from? "the wing nut used to attach the [tambour] hook to handle makes it impossible to use the hook as anything other than a tambour hook.... The stitches possible with the early [Scottish] crochet hooks are limited to the shorter stitches (chain, slip stitch, single crochet) used in early patterns for purses, caps, and utilitarian articles. ...tools and stitches used in the earliest crochet seem to come from shepherd's knitting. Flat shepherd's hooks produce just the stitches used before the advent of crocheted. lace."
- A pattern for success, Conspicuous leisure, The price of progress
- Irish crochet, How it grew
- Crochet in America, in the old world, in the hinterlands, modern times
- abbreviations, symbols, American and British stitch names, Reading instructions and symbols, stitch patterns, gauge
- crochet tools, hooks, hook gauge, markers, bobbins, row counters, note pad and pencil, knook
- yarns, threads, and fibers
- New trends; Amigurumi, crocheting for charity, socks, novelty yarns, internet
- holding hook and yarn, slip knot, yo, making a chain, counting chains, sl st, turning the work, work in front or back loop, forming a ring, attaching yarn, fasten off yarn.
- sc, incr, decr, work edge stitches (inside or outside main body of stitch), hdc,
- dc, working in spaces between, crochet around post, FPdc, BPdc
- spiral cylinder, straight seam cylinder, round and flat, making corners
- tr (treble crochet), dtr (double treble crochet)
- extended stitches, aka half-step stitched, Elmore stitches, dsc (double single crochet), Edc (extended double crochet), perfect curves "sc, hdc, dc, Edc, tr, Etr, tr, Edc, dc, hdc, sc"
- foundation stitches, Fsc (foundation sc)
- Linking stitches "are useful to connect the sides of long stitches."
- Crosssed stitches, cluster stitches, bobbles, popcorns, puffs, shells
Patterns
decorative hotpad, feel better shawl, 2 st hat & scarf set, me & my buddy dog, market bag, bucket tote, Aran isles muffler & tam, granny square beanie, beatrix hedgehog, blue tank top, cabled socks.
Beyond the basics
working with color
techniques for working in colors
- hidden strand method, switching strand method, tapestry method
- round work, single direction...for flat pieces.
- alternating hands sc, reverse sc (RevSc)
- stranding method, intarsia method "intarsia...italian...inlay"
- spike stitch method, crow's foot spike
Straight laces
- picots in chains, in existing stitches
- filet, treble treble crochet
- chain ring, adjustable ring, double ring (thicker center ring by wrapping thread twice)
- joining motifs, sewing, built in join, fill in join
- Irish crochet, flower & lace motifs (corded & uncorded) ground pattterns/edging/insertion, joining.
Wire crochet
Tunisian crochet
Expert details
pockets, buttonholes, buttons,
working with edgings
corded reverse edging, aka crab or shrimp stitch
working on the edge
patterns
yo-yo afghan, lap of luxury, baby bobbles, cuddly cables hooded cape, delicate filet edging, pot holders, bubble gum (bead) purse, saugatuck summer boatneck sweater, purple texture baby cocoon and hat, chic motif cape, fresh idea afgan stitch pillow, embraced in love.
Stitch pattern gallery
- "A stitch is the smallest element in crochet"
- "When you repeat a combination of stitches, you develop a pattern."
- "Patterns are named at the whim of the creator, but... usually mental reminder of what the pattern look like.... may be descriptive, such as V Stitch.... may be chosen because the pattern looks similar to a pattern in another needlework technique, such as Seed Stitch in knitting or Bullion Stitch in embroidery. The pattern might remind you of another object.... such as Peacock Stitch or Catherine's Wheel.
- "name often includes an ending such as stitch, lace, square, medallion, or edging to indicate the form.... stitch usually refers to a ground or all-over fabric. Lace also refers to an all-over fabric but one that contains lace holes. Square and medallion refer to small individual units that are sewn or crocheted together to create a large piece.... edging is a narrow band to decorate the edge of a crocheted or fabric piece."
- "Many of the simpler crochet patterns have multiple names. For instance, V stitch, is also called Spider Stitch, Begonia Stitch, Cluster Stitch, and Rope Stitch."
- Open Stitch, turning chain worked outside main body of stitches, Dc-ch....
- Seed Stitch, Sc-ch...
- Shallow Stitch, aka Wide stitch, Dc-Dc...
- Grit Stitch, aka Alternate St, V st; 2 Sc in same st, sk st...
- V Stitch, aka spider st, begonia st, cluster st, rope st; sc-ch-sc in same st, sk 2 st... ; wattle st; sc-ch-dc
- track st, uses "odd number of rows of simple st like sc between individual rows of decorative st ... [so] decorative st will always show its right side on the front of the work."
- extended stitch aka herringbone, elmore
- cross st, locked cross st
- and lots more stitches
motifs
filet crochet
edges, edgings, and insertions
- "Edges are worked directly onto a piece of crochet to provide strength, stability, and decoration."
- "Edgings are worked separately from a larger piece and have one straight edge for sewing them into place.".... "can work edgings separately from or directly onto a fabric."
- "Insertions have two straight edges and are inserted into fabric along both edges."
- "is a cross between crochet and knitting and requires a special hook... [that] is longer than a standard crochet hook, so you can hold the last loop of each stitch on the hook as work on the row... afgan hook."
- "is usually worked with the front of work facing you and is not turned at the end of the row."
bibliography
- notes for history of crochet
- general
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