If you'd like to jump off the deep end and see if you can swim, join me here. The water is fine. Freeform Crochet & Beyond by Renate Kirkpatrick is a pretty cool book. Now here's the deal with it. The photos are meh, for the most part. The directions (or guidelines) use the British crochet terms and it's definitely NOT the book to learn to crochet with.
However, there is a wonderful gallery
and if you can cipher it out, some fabulous stitches and that elusive permissive "do whatever you want and here are some guidelines."
I like that. Guidelines are really helpful. I've been crocheting up a blizzard of flowers over the past year and have garnered some great inspiration from this book. Renate uses this "patch" system whereby you create small patches of crochet in any variety of shapes and then begin to sew them together, building your piece.
I like the color restraint used in these two gallery pictures from the book. The samples are really crazy colors. I'm sure that was done so that you can see the different patches used.
All together, despite the downsides, I am using this book ALOT. I love the sculptural aspect of crochet and the building of textures. And you may have noticed, I am really obsessed with flowers lately.
Have fun! and a great weekend. xo - Diana
Diana, I LOVE Freeform crochet! Based on the photos you included from the book, it looks like the author was influenced by Sylvia Cosh & James Walters. Sadly, Sylvia died in 2000 from cancer, but it looks like one of their books "The Crochet Workbook," which was originally published in 1989, is being re-released. I imagine it is all the same material as the original. In the original, even though some of the photos seemed dated even for then, it's a great book. And it goes into detail on how to increase, decrease, fit the shapes together, etc. I have the original printing, and was lucky enough to take a workshop from Sylvia and that's how I learned to freeform crochet. They were the ones who coined the term "scrumbling" for freeform crochet. Their site, although outdated, has a lot of info on it: http://www.crochet.nu/scjwc/index.html. Here's the link to their book: http://www.amazon.com/Crochet-Workbook-Dover-Knitting-Tatting/dp/048649621X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390657924&sr=1-1&keywords=sylvia+cosh
Posted by: Traci Bunkers | 01/25/2014 at 09:15 AM
When I unpack everything I will find my crotchet hooks!
Posted by: Wendy @ the Late Start Studio | 01/25/2014 at 02:24 PM
haha! unless you find some other shiny thing to play with :)
Posted by: Diana Trout | 02/10/2014 at 08:10 PM
Sorry this took so long, Traci. A friend turned me onto freeform a few months back and directed me to Sylvia and James and this book. This is pretty exciting. I wish there were more (usable) hours in the day. But I've done some exploring and am really enjoying this! I'd love to see some of the things you've made.
Posted by: Diana Trout | 02/10/2014 at 08:13 PM