Product Details
The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs: 500 Classic & Original Patterns

The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs: 500 Classic & Original Patterns
By Linda Schapper

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Product Description

A classic of stitchwork, The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs has now been updated with all-new diagrams and full-color photography, and showcases 500 designs—from traditional favorites to originals found nowhere else. There are soft and lacy patterns; some that mimic knitting, weaving, or patchwork; and others that use large openwork and popcorn stitches. And every stitch design features a photo, reader-friendly instructions, and a diagram showing each stitch and its placement—so it’s easy to understand the entire design at a glance. The guide also includes a pictorial index, which displays the complete pattern, and directions for all basic crochet stitches. Both beginners and experienced crocheters alike will turn to this invaluable reference for years to come.A Main Selection of the Crafter's Choice Book Club.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #44034 in Books
  • Published on: 2007-07-01
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 352 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Linda Schapper's artistic vision is expressed in a wide range of media, from patchwork quilts and crochet, to painting and liturgical textiles, all of which are characterized by a folk-art style. She has traveled and taught extensively around the world in more than 30 countries, speaks four languages, and has had some 100 exhibits of her patchwork quilts. She has written eight books, four of them on crochet. She now divides her time between painting, and writing about her liturgical work.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful and Helpful!5
Even though I have several other books with many stitch designs, I picked this one up. I was delightfully surprized to find a beautifully done book. The description of each stitch is clear and easy to follow, and is presented in three different ways: a lovely color photograph using yarn I would love to go out and buy right away; written instructions for each stitch; and the symbol chart.

Often many stitch books-nice as they may be-do not use they symbols, and, to my mind, once you learn how to read the symbol chart, crocheting goes so much faster and so much easier. Having all three descriptions(photo, written, symbol) for each stitch really adds to the versitility of this book.

Also, the page you want stays open and lies flat so you can follow along without having to stop and put your work down to find your place, and it has 500 stiches, separated into categories from single crochet designs to more complex ones. What more could any crochet lover want?

I know this book will become one I use over and over and will keep for many years. I highly reccomend it.

Great Crochet Resource!5
This book was the answer to my prayer when it comes to a visual resource of crochet stitches. I am working on designing a wedding shawl for myself and wanted a book that had I could get some inspiration from. The book not only has 500 designs, but each are clearly described with directions and a symbol diagram.

I have already created swatches of several patterns and the directions make sense and so far are mistake free! I am really happy that I found this book. I have looked at several others and they just don't seem to have the clear color pictures, symbol charts and unusual stitch designs that this one has.

A very good stitch book, with one flaw.4
This book features many stitch patterns and their variations. It doesn't delve too deeply into post stitches or textured stitches, although there are enough I think for most readers of this book. However, it does thoroughly cover everything else. It's a very large & thick book and has been proving itself a very good reference. I find it helpful to see the variations on a basic pattern, as I most often like those better and it's interesting to see how changing just one stitch in a pattern can alter the whole look.

I'm grateful the editors decided to use one color yarn for all the swatches & a similar color layout for all the pages. I find even the color of yarn can change the appearance of a swatch, so having all the swatches in the same yarn/color provides the brain an easy comparison with all the patterns. Recently there seems to be this push to make the stitch reference books colorful and happy, with this abject fear that if any two pages are uniform in appearance, we're all going to get soooo bored we'll fall asleep reading it. That's great for kids or if you need to be inspired by pretty things, but I'm choosing a pattern for a design and I want my stitch reference to be my workhorse in that endeavor & not a distraction. And I'm really happy there are written instructions AND charts.

My only problem (and reason for giving 4 stars, not 5) is the yarn used to stitch up the samples. It's a fuzzy kind of yarn. In the pictures you can make out the stitch textures a bit, but the fuzz factor obscures those details and almost makes the photo look out of focus. I can only assume that a person not familiar with photography decided on the yarn and thought it looked pretty or gave the swatches a softer appearance. It just plain doesn't work & was a really dumb move on the editor's part. If you're looking to see what a pattern would look like in a mercerized cotton, you might be frustrated. Basically, you have to view these patterns with a softer eye in order to get over the fuzz factor.

For the shear number of stitches and variations, I would definitely recommend this book. For most people, this book will serve very well, both as a reference for designing and for clarification of certain stitch patterns in purchased designs.