January 2009

Sensual Crochet: Luxurious Yarns, Alluring Designs by Amy Swenson, published by Sterling/Hollan (January 1, 2008).

With so many truly yummy yarns becoming more widely available, Amy Swenson has presented a collection of crochet patterns that showcase delicious fibres such as bamboo, silk, cashmere, hemp, merino wool, angora, alpaca, soy silk, and cotton. Anyone that has any of these yarns in their stash, or has lusted after them at their local yarn shop knows that most of these goodies don’t come cheap, and making a whole heap of garments out of luxury yarns would be a very expensive exercise. All of these patterns have been designed with this in mind, and most of the projects are created using lacy stitches or close fitting or cropped sizing, so that crocheters can easily and affordably create gorgeous things using gorgeous yarns.

My favourite patterns in this collection are Vintage Lace Scarf using cultured silk, Sea Pebble Wrap Skirt using bamboo, and Red Hot Halter using silk.

Like all good crochet books, the patterns are well written, clearly illustrated, and most patterns include schematic diagrams and stitch diagrams. A nice inclusion in every pattern is information on substitute yarns, including yardage and the number of knitting stitches per 4 inches, especially useful since this information is on yarn labels. There is also a useful reference section, with a list of other good crochet publications.

About the reviewer: Kate is a busy mother of four and has far too many craft projects on the go at any one time. These could include, but are not limited to, crochet, sewing, dyeing, paper making, spinning, felting and bookbinding. Kate has challenges in the areas of finishing things, saying no and craft supplies storage. She also has a very very patient and tolerant husband.

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