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!