Book Review: Convertible Crochet.

Goodness! It's long past time we reviewed my Crochet Christmas present - Doris Chan's Convertible Crochet.

The premise of this book is simple; Why? When crochet is so adaptable for 3 dimensional shapes why do we forget that when we make garments? Why do we create separate pieces of fabric, as if we were a dressmaker cutting cloth, and then join them together. Well why do we? Don't you hate those lumpy seams and the way they restrict the drape of that garment you've spent hours creating; or the way the increases and decreases leave little holes along the seam? Don't you dread the words, 'Sew seams, set in sleeves'?

Get ready to be taken on a journey through the cosmos with Doris. We start off nice and slow. She starts off with a doily, what could be more innocuous than that? She blows it up so that we can all imagine it as a throw or a shawl. Now we can imagine it with a hole in the middle so that it becomes a poncho, lets add a waistband so that it's now a skirt. So far so good?

Here's where Doris shows off her genius, she deconstructs that simple doily and creates a myriad of hexagons, octagons and pentagrams; a whole constellation of stars!! By putting these shapes together you can start to create a cloth that moulds and fits itself to the human form.

Perhaps by now your head is spinning a bit? Don't worry we're still travelling slowly. She shows us how those shapes can be put together to create a stole, a cowl, another poncho and another skirt.

We're not even half way through the book when we pick up speed. We start to really move into proper garment shapes with 3 different loose cardigan style wraps. You're not just being given a garment pattern but a real understanding of how to create a garment yourself.

The last two chapters are where my favourite patterns are. The patterns are all in exploded lace, but don't worry, there's no crochet thread or lace weight yarn to worry about. The designs are DK, sports weight and fingering. They go from girl next door to dressy and elegant. There are 2 more skirts and a beautiful dress, 3 summer or maybe evening tops, 2 tunics, a really sweet shrug and 2 Jackets.

Just to round things off, there are some proper no sweat finishing instructions and not a seam in sight!

All in all great value for money and a very entertaining read. If you want to expand your core crochet skills it's a must buy!

Help! I can't see to crochet.

I know there must be someone out there who's having the same problem as me, so I thought you might like to hear about my solution. 

You know I used to have perfect vision, but sadly as we get older we all need some help. To start with I just needed reading glasses but you have to keep taking them off! I used to forget where I'd put them, so I started to wear them round my neck but that wasn't an ideal solution either. Eventually I ended up with Varifocles, it means that I can crochet and watch telly at the same time. 

As my eye sight has slowly deteriorated I started to find thread crochet really difficult to work on. Glasses are set for a comfortable reading distance but I have found that I tend to hold fine crochet work much closer than I would hold a book, tablet or work on a computer. There are innumerable solutions on the market from magnifying lenses on stands, with clips or that you can hang around your neck. You'd think that there would be a solution for me, but none of them felt comfortable. But then I had an idea!

I remembered my Mum complaining that she was having difficulty telling the difference between two different coloured yarns. She took the two samples with her on her next visit to the optician. The optician explained that as we grow older we need more light to see by.

So on my next visit to the opticians I took a sample of thread crochet and the appropriate hook with me so that she could see exactly what the problem was. I felt very silly but was made to feel quite sensible! Apparently this is a not uncommon problem for people who do fine work. The solution is to have a pair of reading glasses which are set just a fraction stronger than usual. Of course I can't watch telly while wearing them but I haven't lost them yet because they are always with my crochet work!

It is so wonderful to be able to do this kind of work again that I thought it was worth sharing with you.