I’ve been on a kick lately where I’ve been hunting down vintage crochet books through my local library. I love seeing what was written about crochet in different eras of the craft, especially in the 70′s and early ’80s. Previously my vintage resources were mostly limited to crochet magazines but these books provide a lot of fun stuff that I’m happy to be checking out. I’m especially excited about a book I’ve discovered called Crochet creativo
What is Freeform Crochet?
Bueno, so for those people who aren’t too familiar with freeform crochet, it refers to a type of crochet where you are free to break the rules of crochet. You don’t necessarily work in rows but instead just in any direction your heart desires, adding any stitches you feel like adding. You can do this as art but it can also be shaped to be a unique wearable item. Freeform is fun because it really opens up the possibilities for crochet and lets you be wildly creative if you want to.
Acerca de este libro
Creative Crochet is a book by Nicki Hetz Edson and Arlene Stimmel. It is subtitled: “Step-by-step demonstrations that take you from basic stitches to creative techniques”. Fue publicado en 1973 by presses in New York and London. One downside to the book is that most of the pictures are in black-and-white although there is a nice color section in the center. Other than that the book doesn’t seem too dated and offers lots of great ideas for freeform crochet.
Some Fun Vintage Features
One of the things that I like about vintage crochet books is that they have information you don’t see a lot in modern times. This info can be useful. This book includes:
- Yarn Chart. It shows the descritions, pros and cons and best uses for various types of yarn and some of it is vintage yarn that you don’t necessarily find info on today. So if you’ve ever wondered how to use that old rug yarn that your aunt gave you or fisherman’s yarn or cowhair then this book can tell you. (Sí, cowhair, apparently used to crochet Western stuff mostly).
- Cómo utilizar un Swift Yarn. I’ve never seen this in a contemporary crochet book so I think it’s kind of fun extra info.
- Different Names for Familiar Stitches. Today we saw BLO or FLO for crocheting in just the back loop or just the front loop. Apparently in 1973 BLO was called Rib Stitch and FLO was called Albanian Stitch. I love these little insights.
- Slightly Different Crochet Charts. I don’t typically use crochet charts but from what i can tell the symbols are a little different in this vintage crochet book. I may be wrong on this detail, aunque. I’m so not a chart-visual style of person.
- Crocheter’s Work Showcased. There are a lot of crochet items from different designers shown in pictures in this book. I have created a list for myself of people to look up to see if I can get more info on any of them.
The Normal Stuff in this Crochet Book
- How to do the basic crochet stitches. Very clear drawings help if a beginner were to come across this book.
- How to do some basic crochet techniques like weaving in ends.
- A simple guide to some common “fancy stitches” like shell sitch. These come with row by row instructions as well as graphs.
- A guide to making the basic geometric shapes. This mostly explains increases and decreases to get different common shapes.
Project Ideas, Not Patterns
A Few Examples
Buy the Book
This vintage crochet book is available on Amazon
[...] crocheters that Nicki Hitz Edson and Arlene Stimmel made in the introduction to their book titled Creative Crochet. I’m curious to see if you agree with it or not [...]
[...] Crochet Quotes Pin ItToday’s crochet quote comes from the vintage freeform crochet book that I reviewed last week. Creative Crochet by Nicki Hitz Edson and Arlene Stammel is a fun book [...]
[...] Crochet Quotes Pin ItToday’s crochet quote comes from the vintage freeform crochet book that I reviewed last week. Creative Crochet by Nicki Hitz Edson and Arlene Stammel is a fun book [...]
[...] areas of crochet that are popular with certain segments of crafters and artists today. Por ejemplo, Creative Crochet is about freeform crochet and Hard Crochet touches on tapestry crochet. These books mention so many [...]
[...] that I got for the series’ list came from the great 1970′s freeform crochet book Creative Crochet. Arlene Stimmel was the co-author of that terrific book. The book explains that New Yorker Stimmel [...]
[...] personally first saw Sharron’s work in my go-to 1970s crochet resource, Creative Crochet by Nicki Hitz Edson and Arlene Stimmel. This book is the ultimate resource on the group of New [...]
[...] 1970s Crochet Designers The 1970s crochet book Creative Crochet shows several pieces of work from a Lannie Martowe. The 1980s book Art to Wear has a few items from [...]
[...] first reference I saw about this artist was in the 1973 freeform crochet art book Creative Crochet by Niki Hitz Edson and Arlene Stimmel. Many of the artists who were featured in this book knew [...]
[...] Dittrick’s work in his own book, Crochet duro. Sin embargo, I later saw that he was featured in Creative Crochet, un recurso crochet superior de la década de 1970 que fue escrita seis años antes el propio libro de Dittrick. [...]
[...] Hawk mentioned two that you already know I love: Creative Crochet and Design Crochet, both from the [...]