Reviewed by annieb123 on
A Modern Guide to Textured Crochet is a stitch pattern guide dedicated to textured crochet stitches by Lee Sartori. Due out 25th May 2021 from Penguin Random House on the Interweave imprint, it's 128 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.
The author/designer is one of my favorites on ravelry and honestly got me interested in crochet again (I'm a fanatical knitter and embroiderer and crochet was always an also-ran for me personally). Although the advance materials sent for review are a very small portion of the book, I've been familiar with both the publisher and author designer for years.
The layout is light and bright with high contrast text and modern feeling colors. The chapters are arranged thematically: a tutorial introduces the basic stitches and concepts and is followed by the stitch patterns (there are 32 total) grouped seasonally: spring (tulip, lilac, butterfly stitches), summer (ice cream, lemon peel, summer shell stitch), fall (acorn, loose leaves, fall cable), and winter (embossed holly, winter cable, snowflake stitch). Each season also has a project tutorial included which incorporates some of the stitches from the relevant season. The photography in the sample pages is excellent, clear and full of color.
This is a must have for fans of the designer, as well as lovers of textural crochet which often gets passed by for more open crochet grounds. Seeing these stitches really got my imagination engaged. I could definitely see using the bobble stitch to make designs or letters to spell out the recipient's name on a blanket for example.
Four and a half stars (because the partial copy received for review was incomplete and didn't include any excerpts from the pattern tutorials - I strongly suspect the final product will be 5 stars).
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 24 May, 2021: Finished reading
- 24 May, 2021: Reviewed