Work in Progress Wednesday - Crochet, New Books

I got a parcel yesterday from AMAZON.ca!  After much indecision, I ordered two books that I have been seeing "reviewed" by other bloggers and because I had a gift card, I went ahead and ordered two crochet books.   They are excellent purchases!  I am going to go so far as to say they will be an essential part of my craft library!

 

First I spent about an hour just turning pages and looking at pictures...

 

 

From the "Crochet Motifs" book I had such a hard time picking out a favourite motif to try, I kept going back and forth between designs.

Then I thought I would start at the beginning.  I made motif #2 this morning.  It took only about 10 minutes to do up this sample.  I used the first scraps of yarn I could find -- a worsted weight.   As soon as I got this one done, I was thinking if I made 10 or so just like it and strung them together, it would make a pretty Christmas Scarf .  At that rate I could have a scarf done in a couple of hours...

The thing that I really like about both these books is that you might call them Modern Crochet.  Each instruction is not only written out but also has the symbol/diagram system.  If you have not figured out the symbol system, both these books explain it and how to use it -- It is way easier to keep track of where you are in a project if you follow the symbols.

Many years ago, my grandmother gave me a crochet and knitting book called Mon Tricot, and I have used it over and over and over these many years -- one of its drawbacks is that it was written using the ENGLISH/EUROPEAN method, so I had to convert the shorthand, dc to sc, htdc to dc and so on.  These two books are both using the AMERICAN system of names for the stitches.

"The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs"  is really well organized in that it starts with the simplest designs based on single crochet and chain stitches and progresses through the various basic stitches to make very complicated crochet patterns.

I recently found a sweater pattern that I want to make up but am so dismayed that it uses only single crochet throughout.  Now going through the "The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs" I am liking the above pattern and am going to see if I can convert the stitches of the sweater from boring old single crochet to this pattern, Simple Shells.

I know these two books will keep me occupied for the next little while and much beyond as references.  
I can hardly wait to dig deeper into the pages and play with stitch designs and motifs!  It will be hard to settle on just one crochet project with so many new choices in front of me!