QUICK REVIEW – The Essential Book of Crochet Techniques

There are several books in print which cover many of the techniques demonstrated in this book, published in 2006. It’s a handy size hardback with my favorite spiral binding. Why aren’t all books made like this?

Included are 127 pages in this book covering everything from listings of standard abbreviations, increases, decreases, buttonholes, stitches, turning chains, and a couple pages on blocking. In short, there’s about everything you ever needed to know about crochet but might not have thought to ask (yet).

This would be a great purchase for a beginner and a helpful addition to many crochet libraries. The smaller size (6.5X9.25 inches) assures that it’ll fit easily into a project bag for quick reference ‘on the go’.

This may not be The Definitive reference book, but it’s a good one.

It’s available used online, originally listing for $24.95. Author is Nancie M. Wiseman, Martingale Press, ISBN 1564776298.

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I recently came across a post from Lord Libidan talking about embroidery floss packs and whether it’s worth the money to buy a set of threads all at once instead of one skein at a time.

With the closure of Joann some people were buying these bundles as a way to build their stash/stockpile if they didn’t have another place to buy locally. I did the same thing when I first started cross stitching again after a break of many years, because I wanted to get a bunch of colors all at once without the overwhelming job of picking colors from the wall of thread when I didn’t have a particular project in mind.

And I think for this purpose buying a package with colors you like or some basic/popular colors is probably a good idea and relatively cost effective.

My Joann didn’t have any floss packs when it was closing (in fact it didn’t have cross stitch floss at all for a month or more, then suddenly go a bunch about a week before closing) but I might have bought one just to have the variety if they had been available.

If Amazon is going to be your source for cross stitch supplies going forward, I think buying packs of cross stitch floss when the colors make sense is definitely going to be a better deal. As I write this a pack of 36 popular colors was running $39.50, or about $1.09 a skein. I used to pay 66 cents per skein at Joann, but buying a single skein of black floss on Amazon would run you $4.29.

Herrschners sells DMC floss for $1.05 per skein or less, but shipping isn’t free and you’ll have to buy a lot (or a lot of other things, too) to meet their minimums for free shipping when they offer it.

Check out the post on Lord Libidan for his thoughts and let me know where you are buying cross stitch floss now if you used to buy it at Joann.

[Photo via Herrschners]

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