Customer Reviews

More Tapestry Crochet

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

More Tapesty Crochet is a step up from her first book "Tapestry Crochet" -- it delves in deeper into the history of this unique craft and explains its many different cultural applications.

The patterns given in this book are very similar to the first book, it also gives a very detailed explanation of developing your own designs and patterns. The Author has learned a lot from her own mistakes and experimentation and tries to relay all that information to the reader so they can get going more quickly.

If you only buy one of the author's Tapestry books -- I recommend this one (it provides all the information of the first plus more detail), but the original book still provides different designs and ideas that compliment this one quite nicely.

This "Labor of Love," as she calls her book, is truly a gem. Designed and published by Carol herself, the book is colorful and well illustrated. A former Peace Corps volunteer as well, I know the hardships that Carol endured as a volunteer in Guatemala in the late 70's. I also know that passions that grow for colorful cultures, so unlike our own, by the sheer intensity of living and serving others in their unique milieu. The book shows the depth of study Carol has undertaken for her topic and a maturity in her design concepts, since her first book, "Tapestry Crochet," was published in 1991. In addition to the exciting projects, there is a wealth of knowledge about tapestry crochet and its history; natural fibers; examples of ethnic pieces from different corners of the world; right and left-handed instructions and her incredibly useful and unique graph paper. Dr. Ventura lists come great resources for crochet enthusiasts and includes a website where color photos of all the projects can be seen.

This book is very interesting...I've made two projects from it already. The beginners will like this because you only need to learn a few basic stitches (chain, single crochet)and then follow the very complete directions to complete a project....some will take hours, some will take weeks.
The advanced crocheter will appreciate the history included in the book and also learning a new technique. Creating pictures by carrying the thread across a row is different for many crocheter's as we usually use bobbins....you'll enjoy reading about the author also.

Words just about escape me when I try to explain this book but I will try. It is a work of art, packed full of very fascinating history of crochet, and the illustrated directions are so clear and easy to follow, including left and right hand directions. Oh the purses in here are just beautiful and yes it does have the full instructions for them!! It also shows a very, new to me anyway, crochet technique that I just can't wait to try. This book is a great addition to any crocheters library.

Pros:
+ Great patterns with clear instructions. The instructions are given without abbreviations, which drives me up the wall, but that's a personal-preference thing and charts are also included.
+ Graph paper and techniques for charting your own designs.
+ Good instructions for all of the necessary stitches, including basic non-tapestry crochet; this would be a fine book for a beginner.
+ Book is organized by shape, which makes a nice natural progression for learning.

Cons:
- The historical and cultural tidbits are interesting, and show the author's dedication to studying different crochet traditions, but they feel very haphazard. There is little or no background given as to who the people in the photographs are or when they were taken. I feel like it would have been a stronger book with less historical and fiber-trivia information and a more thoroughly annotated bibliography so that people who want to know more can get in-depth information on whatever they are interested in.
- Black-and-white pictures and charts. I realize there were cost issues, but for something this visual it really does make a difference. On the other hand, if you're color-blind and have trouble reading colorwork charts because of it this is perhaps the book for you :-)

Such a good book, lot's of neat patterns and really good directions. I can't wait to start making everything in the book. You will really like this book.

This book is a comfortable size, slightly bigger than A4, and sit easily on the workbench. One often thinks ring-binding is easiest because of the lie-flt aspect but with spiral binding there is the inherent danger of torn pages, so I'm happy that this book has a glued spine.There are many black and white photographs of the items and the patterns and four pages in colour, showing the given projects. There are also numerous black and white diagrams and drawings to illustrate the already-clear instructions.

I had never heard of tapestry crochet and at first I found the changing-thread technique a little fiddly but Ms Ventura's encouraging style kept me practising. Dealing first with the basic stitch, she progresses us from simple, circular patterns to more complex ones and closes the book by teaching how to do tapestry crochet in flat pieces as well as in the round. There are patterns for hats, bags, little purses, baby blankets and scarves. The close-up photographs of the stitch patterns are very helpful.

Ms Ventura supplies graphs for each pattern and also gives written, line-by-line instructions where there is no stinting of detail. Some might find the repetition tedious but to me it shows a real desire to be clear and complete. There is no trace of the 'do-it-until-it-looks-right' attitude. The whole book is conscientiously researched and produced. Full instructions are included for left handed people; there is not any suggestion to just use a mirror and manage as best you can.

By the nature of the stitch formation, this style of crochet results in the pattern working on a slight right-hand bias. Ms Ventura explains why this happens and how to take it into account when making one's own graphs. The book includes special tapestry-crochet graph paper for both the right and the left handed student. There are also examples of how to plot a design and the pitfalls one might encounter.

Interspersed between instructions are articles on the background of this craft and the production of cotton, linen and wool; there are interesting photographs of people from the Cameroons to Guatamala doing this style of crochet and of their end products.

I am delighted with this book and have learned from it. It feels and is a whole-hearted effort by Ms Ventura and I offer her my thanks and congratulations.

This book inspires and guides your attempts to create multicolour motifs in crochet, padding the stitches with the unused thread by laying it across the previous row. There is no better way. It starts you off with a few examples of her own patterns set on sensible 'canvasses' in the shape of bags and hats etc. There are some African and Guatemalan designs with no instructions that with a little experience and the help of her invaluable distorted graph paper you can immediately copy or adapt. It is much better than Tapestry Crochet 1, which I got very annoyed with. The designs and photos in that are less inspiring.
The missing star is for all the unnecessary repetitions of things like 'continue in colour A'. Well yes I would if you said nothing... ! And there are repetitions of exact stitch instructions which could have been indicated by number of repetitions or a diagram saving pages and pages. No doubt this will reassure beginners... falsely, as it happens. You don't need it even as a beginner. She uses US terminology if I remember rightly, but as the only crochet stitches are double crochet (single crochet US) and chain, it shouldn't cause problems in Europe.
There are few diagrams, but the pictures are good enough schematics with such simple shapes.
The real beauty of the book is the set of authentic examples and the background information by an author who has really lived with these people. It reminded me of my own trip to Guat. That coupled with the graph paper makes this book uniquely and timelessly useful as a resource.

Amazing book! There only appear to be three books on this topic in the world----and Carol wrote them all!

Excellent book. However, it should be priced much lower. It was a requested gift, so I paid the price, but I would never pay this much for myself.