Customer Reviews

Crochet Inspiration

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love this book! Love it! Love it! Love it! This might be my favorite purchase so far this year.

Whether you've been crocheting for years or just a beginner, you are going to love this book. Sasha Kagan has written a book that is not only beautifully written and photographed but is full of wonderful crochet stitch patterns that made my imagination soar. I love the crochet diagrams in this book. They make everything so much clearer and easier to follow. I immediately pick up my crochet needle and started making a design. I haven't crocheted in years. (I have no idea yet what this will turn into but so far it looks great.) I always loved that freeform, sculptural aspect of crochet. This book encouraged me to pick a block and go for it.

Although the book includes a number of crochet patterns, I think this book will bring out your inner designer. For all you knitters out there who don't get crochet - this is the book for you. The clear directions and diagrams will have you added crochet trims to your next project.

Want inspiration? Order this book! An avid crocheter for years, with a serious PAS and YAS syndrome, this book was bought unseen because of the author, Sasha Kagan. From the first page you are immersed in color, patterns and thoughtful design. Chapter 2, the first 86 pages, is where it gets exciting. Beautiful stitch patterns, in both written and chart form. The book assumes you can crochet, so be forewarned it isn't a "how-to" book. This isn't a book of patterns, though it has them. This book is meant to ignite your imagination, to be used to modify your everyday patterns or create new ones. Not only stitch patterns, which progress logically from single crochet and variations thereof to shell patterns, even filet crochet, but seemingly unintentionally the author has also given you a lesson on color theory and what the stitches appear like in different types of yarn. This theme is carried out throughout the entire book. Gorgeous photos, generously sized, so you can visualize the fabric a stitch makes and begin to imagine an afghan; a sweater; a scarf or purse. Chapter 3, Motifs, has some of the most gorgeous motifs I've ever seen. Not ordinary things, although there are some of those, but how a motif can look entirely different with different yarns and colors. Beautiful, classic motifs that get your fingers itching! Chapter 4 has some unique and some basic granny motifs; Chapter 5 has flowers. Oh, not the usual flowers, but some breathtakingly gorgeous flowers! Flowers, leaves, seed pods, that are three dimensional. With every kind of yarn. The sunflower is a show stopper; I've never seen one so beautiful. These flowers can stand alone or be used as embelishments. Chapter 6 has projects. There are 11 projects; wraps, the belt from the front cover, a purse, cap, flower pincushion, choker, sarong and scarves. All unique designs. This one is a keeper.

I purchased this at Barnes and Noble, although normally I do use Amazon, but instant gratification won out in this case! I am not a novice crocheter and am always looking for intrigue and beauty in patterns, and patterns that are adaptable to many projects. I love a beautiful book with pages of inspiration and this one has what I look for! Knitting has so many books to itself and finally crocheting is having a say! Both are terrific crafts, but this lovely book brings some justice. I will look for more from Sasha Kagan and hope she writes more for crocheting like Crochet Inspiration!

196 crochet patterns beginning with most basic but including some very unusual flower motifs plus what seem to be original filet charts. Huge colorful photos of the motifs and patterns followed by word explanations and very large charts using international crochet symbols and the American terminology.Rather heavy and pretentious book as most of the patterns can be found in the two Harmony stitch books or the old standard French Mon Tricot book. The 11 patterns have some very nice items: Gossamer wrap which is hard to visualize from its photo, motif lace wrap, handbag with flowers which is not lined unfortunately, flapper cap with flower, woven scarf, squiggle scarf (freeform type of crochet), ruffle flower pinchusion, pansy choker, flower shower tunic (in mesh pattern), flower motif belt,mandala sarong (large motif shawl). Naturally all yarns are Rowan. Charts are so large you can read them without glasses but the print is rather tiny and hard to read. The print could have been darker, but the binding is very good allowing the book to lie flat. There are many patterns I want to crochet including her 6 point star, connected popcorn triangles, 3D granny, gothic granny, wheels connected (her color choices are gorgeous on this one). The author admits in her intro that she is making a return to her early crochet efforts as a little girl and did study it recently.
Chapters are: variations on sc, stitches get taller, bobbles, shells and clusters, variations on mesh, filets, textures, spikes, lace, motifs: circles, hexagons, triangles, Grannies: basic, lace, floral and flowers: country, fantasy. Nothing on hairpin lace or tunisian crochet.
While this book is beatifully produced by the Vogue book people, it is only a small selection after all of motifs and patterns and therefore not essential purchase. Also there are no helpful or otherwise pages for the beginner which is fine with me. I do wish she would have given information on combining her motifs which she only does in a few cases.
In short, an inspirational book for the jaded crocheter who already has everything else.

I got this book to replace a book that was lost (after 30 years). This book is beautifully illustrated, has instructions for many different motifs, stitches, granny squares, and more. It has excellent instructions and is easy to follow. The book, sorry to say, does not have crochet trims or borders, which I would have liked to have, but it still is an excellent book. This is not a book for beginners. The book is for a person more experienced with crochet.

I was hoping this book would be as pretty as the cover but it isn't. The swatches tend to be too close to the background color so they don't have enough contrast. I would also have liked a page that tells what yarn was used in each swatch. I know, these are little things and they are not that important to the overall book but it is part of my opinion.
Other then that I think the book is very usefull it has lots of swatches for different granny squres, hexagons, triangles etc. It also has stitch swatches and a few patterns in the back. I can't talk about errors or acuracy of the patterns because I have not yet tested any but I do have several post-it notes sticking out of things I plan to try.
It's a nice big hard back book with over 250 pages, so I feel like it was worth the money. I don't have any crochet stitch pattern books and I think this one will keep me happy for awhile.

The most impressive thing about the book, beyond its heft, is the lovely photographs. All the designs are shown crocheted in a variety of yarns. The photos are much clearer and larger, and therefore potentially more inspiring, than in most other English language books such as the encyclopedic Harmony Guides to crochet stitches.

The book contains a range of stitches for making stitch combinations such as fans and stripes as well as motifs such as triangles, granny squares, and flowers/leafs, and a selection of filet lace patterns. For virtually all designs, there is both a chart and a description (the variety that uses sc and dc abbreviations). The layout is well-done. There are no edgings.

A word of caution to the absolute beginner: there is no instructional material on how to crochet and only the smallest section to explain the meaning of the chart symbols, so you'll need to look at another book to find out how to begin.

I highly recommend this book to those who adore Japanese crochet books but dislike charts, or who are nervous that they'll miss something in a Japanese-language craft book. The quality of the photography, the way that the samples are shown, and many of the small motifs are quite similar to those shown in Japanese craft books. The disadvantage of this book is that it is just gigantic and hardcover, and therefore less appealing to hold while crocheting. The projects didn't appeal to me at all, but given the treasure trove of material this contains, it is easy to use the styles shown to create your own unique designs.

Inspiration is certainly a lovely description for this book. It is full of beautiful pictures of various stitch patterns and motifs and flowers, and I have already spent several hours just looking through it and planning things. Some of the motifs look like coasters to me, done with some leftover sock yarn that needs a project. And some of the flowers are just so different and beautiful, I just can't wait to do some.

I do admit the book is beautiful, and although I am an avid knitter, I haven't done crochet in years, but I am drawn to the idea of making modules that can easily be carried around to make a bigger shawl, blanket, etc, so this book definitely addresses my need because there are gorgeous squares, circles, etc that can be combined.

My major problem, and this is mentioned in another review, is that the yarn info is not posted with each design. I think this is a glaring oversight in a book like this especially since the author is advertised as a color expert. At least the yarn composition should have been noted. If you want to recreate the piece you do not have what you need. I suspect that the author might look down on this suggestion since it was meant to be "inspirational" -- but come on, everyone is different and some of us not as creative as others, others of us think a reference book should be a bit more complete than this. All that (large) book, and all the work that went into it, all that was required was a bit extra.

Crochet Inspiration
As the title suggests, the numerous ideas in the book should inspire you to new , beautiful projects. The patterns are clearly illustrated and explained and an experienced crocheter should have no problems executing them. As the title suggests, these should inspire you to further experimentation and execution of new projects. So, happy crocheting!