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Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary Review
Are you a crocheter? Then read this Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary review and find out if this is the right book for you to improve your crochet skills!
What is this book about anyway?
Last Christmas I put together a list of top gifts for makers. One of the gifts I mentioned was the Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary by Dora Ohrenstein. I went out and bought it for myself and now I can really tell you all about it!
As its title suggests, this is a stitch dictionary, but it’s certainly not an ordinary one. Dora Ohrenstein has gone one step further and created a book that explains how to manipulate 125 stitch patterns! And what I mean by this, is that the author shows how to work each stitch pattern in three different ways – without shaping, with shaping at the edges, and with internal shaping. And yes, whenever you read shaping, what I’m really saying is showing you how to go about decreasing and increasing all these stitches!
This means that not only you get a dictionary of 125 stitches – that range from closed stitches to classic laces – you also get all the “how to’s” to shape them to your heart’s desires!
Is this book right for you?
The Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary is great, but I would definitely not call it an introductory book.
You’re a beginner
I wouldn’t recommend it to a total beginner since just looking at the symbol keys can be quite overwhelming, nevermind the charts. However, just as Dora says, reading charts is super easy – and she also explains how to do it! – so if you’re an adventurous beginner, you could think about buying it.
Nevertheless, bear in mind that you will need to find other resources to learn how to make the basic stitches. The author assumes that you know how to make a single crochet, half double, double and treble crochet. So, get these under your belt before tackling this book!
You’re a seasoned crocheter
For a crocheter that knows its way around the basic stitches, it is not easy to find resources to help get to the next level. However, Dora Ohrenstein has made things a whole lot easier with this book. It shows how to make more complex stitches, but the most interesting part is all the information on how to shape them.
If you design your own patterns, you will have all of 125 stitches to play with. However, if the stitch you want to shape doesn’t appear in the book, you’re still covered. Dora explains a bit of her method for shaping, which you can apply to your own stitches and thus, opens the doors to shaping everything!
This is definitely the right resource to know the ins and outs of shaping and level up your skills!
What do you get from buying this book?
The Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary shows you how to make incredible crochet stitches. It gives you detailed instructions for the basic pattern and tells you what you need to do to continue that stitch pattern. There’s even a little tip on how to turn any stitch in the book into a scarf or wrap! 🙂
Asides from the basic pattern, the best part of this book is the descriptions on how to decrease and increase each and every one of the stitches. These are shown both at the edge of the pattern and internally. Imagine if you want to make a diagonal line with a stitch – that’s edge shaping. If you want to give shape to a project, but don’t want to make seams, then you’d use internal shaping.
This is what sets the book apart from any other crochet dictionary. It is the first time that someone has gathered all this knowledge in one place. So for every stitch, you’ll find the basic pattern, the pattern for increases and decreases, a chart and a beautiful photo of a sample for you to see how the pattern looks without shaping and with both shapings.
What this book has done for me
I won’t say this book changed my life completely, but close enough! 😉
It has cleared doubts on how to make classic stitches – like the granny stitch, which apparently I did wrong. I have learned new stitches – such as the interwoven diamonds – and discovered new textures – for example, woven shells! My mind is blown away!
And what’s best is that looking at all these stitches has made my mind wander and now I’m full of new ideas to try out on my own designs. I’m so looking forward to working some of these in upcoming designs and I can’t wait to show you!
So “Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary” review conclusion… Should YOU get it?
All in all, I’d say that if you like to crochet, this book is for you!
If you’re a beginner, this book will show you many different stitches that YOU CAN MAKE! You will see some complex stitches, but you will also see that they all come from using basic ones. So take a chance on your crochet and get this fantastic helper.
If crochet is your second name, I’m pretty sure there is still something new you can learn from this book. One of the great things about this craft is that there is always some little thing that you don’t know yet. But alas, if you do know all the stitches, then just let the beautiful fabrics inspire you and spark your creativity!
Get the Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary!
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