Book Review: The New Tunisian Crochet

Today I have the pleasure of reviewing another book for you.  This time I bring you “The New Tunisian Crochet” by Dora Ohrenstein.

Interweave/F+W Media; $24.95

True to Dora’s other writings with which I am familiar, she begins by discussing the history of Tunisian crochet and shows pictures of early projects worked in Tunisian.  She then moves on to explain the very basics.  So, if you’ve never tried Tunisian crochet at all, than this book will teach you what you need to know.  However, the book assumes a knowledge of traditional crochet, so if you are not familiar with traditional crochet, you’ll want to learn that first.

Dora includes a list of websites where Tunisian hooks may be purchased, and then covers various techniques such as double-ended hooks, making circles, entrelac, and colorwork.

The next section is a stitch dictionary.  This part is really exciting to me because my current repertoire of Tunisian stitches is quite small — simple stitch and knit stitch.  I have not published any designs in Tunisian, but I have made some projects in it, and you can expect to see some in the future.  And now, thanks to Dora, you can expect to see stitch patterns besides simple and knit.

Next come the projects, which, of course, we all love!  My favs are:

the Marisol Cardigan by Andrea Graciarena

Photo by Joe Hancock

and the Lorelei Pullover by Dora Ohrenstein.

Photo by Joe Hancock

I’ve thought several times now that I’d love to have some openwork tops like this to wear over a tee.  I’d also love a nice cardigan to wear when Mr AC and I go out to eat because I am always FREEZING in restaurants.  The Lorelei Pullover is made in Malabrigo Lace.  I may actually have some of that!  Excuse me please while I go stash diving…

Rats.  Nope, it was my Tosh Merino Light I was thinking of, but, I digress.

The very last part of the book is a symbol key, because, thankfully, there are lots of symbol diagrams in this book.  I love those things!  And there is a glossary with line drawings of the various stitches.  Dora and F+W Media/Interweave were also kind enough to include designer bios for the 8 designers whose work is included.  I always appreciate that, of course.

This really is a wonderful book that I am so glad to have in my library!  I will be using it, you can count on that!  Many thanks to F+W Media/Interweave, because they have agreed to provide a FREE copy of this book to one lucky reader!  Please leave a comment here on the blog, or tweet a link to this blog post @BananaMoonStdio to be entered in the drawing.  I will compile a list of entrants and choose a winner in one week!  Good luck!

April