Book review – Mollie Makes Crochet

Lately I’ve been getting a bit excited about crochet. I put it down to the onset of Spring because all I want to do a the moment is crochet floral tea cosies.

I had a bit of time before I had to catch my train on Thursday night, so I decided to pop into Dymocks and have a look at their latest knitting books. I’ve noticed lately that there are more and more crochet titles in both bookshops and the magazine shops.

Crochet is HUGE at the moment – and I’m well and truly on the bandwagon. I’m really not particularly interested in making crochet garments as I much prefer the texture and fabric of a knitted piece. But I’m in love with crochet flowers, toys, blankets and tea cosies – and I’m certainly not alone.

So I came home with two crochet books. I usually go straight for stitch dictionary style publications, but instead I went for books full of cute projects.

One book I selected was Mollie Makes Crochet. As you can probably tell, this is a book based on the Mollie Makes Magazine. (This pic is from the publisher’s website, my version did not come with the free gift mentioned in the top, left corner).

I have mixed feelings about Mollie Makes; I really like that it’s all about craft and knitting and sewing. There are some nice projects and the photography is lovely in a twee, “squirrels and cupcakes and hairbands – Oh My!” sort of way.

Unfortunately, a lot of the projects are pitched as people who want to “craft” something without learning a craft. Gluing purchased pom-poms onto purchased hairclips strikes me as something five year olds do to develop motor skills. By all means do it if you want a hairclip covered in pom-poms, just don’t call it “craft”. It’s like buying a heap of cheese and dips from the deli and calling it a home-made meal because you arranged them on the plate.

I love the current enthusiasm for hand-made things, but I hate that it has become an exercise in gluing together bits of made-in-China crap that are amusing for a few weeks and then end up as hand-made landfill.

But enough of my rant (for now), time to talk about the book.

The book I purchased was $15. There is another book with the same title but a different cover and it retails for around $25 online. The one I bought contains 15 projects and a lot of technical/tutorial stuff. The $25 version appears to contain the same projects – but would obviously have 5 others that mine doesn’t.

The projects are really appealing. They are simple enough for the “almost” beginner. If you’ve made your first granny square blanket and know a few stitches, then you’ll get a lot out of this book.

The projects are varied in skill level and range from useful home items to cute little decorative things that serve no purpose other than to be adorable. All of the photography is wonderful.

What makes this book incredibly good value for money is the reference section. It’s not a “learn to crochet” book – but I’d call it a “you know how to chain, double and treble but nothing else – then read me” book.

There are clear diagrams, easy to understand descriptions and instructions on things like crocheting an edging onto a woven fabric (Geoff had better hide his gym towels or I’ll crochet a shell edging on them).

Another thing I really like is that it’s in “English” crochet. There is a difference between English and American stitch names and a lot of books don’t even tell you which they use. I prefer English as that is what I learned, that’s what we largely use in Australia, and the stitch names make sense to me. For those who prefer American, there is a clear explanation of the difference and a handy conversion table.

All up this is a great resource. If I can get hold of a copy of the “20 projects” version without having to buy it I will. I don’t want to double up, and as I said the content seems to overlap a lot. It would be interesting though to do a comparison.

But for now I absolutely recommend this book. Best $15 I’ve spent in ages.