http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16605/16605-h/16605-h.htm
In an earlier blog entry, I asked readers to comment on what their ‘dream’ crochet book would be like. I have my own preferences, but clearly my wish list is not complete. You came up with many more useful, if perhaps unattainable from any crochet artist or publisher, wish list. At least, I think we’ve come pretty far from the crochet book pictured above!
I’ll give you the summary here. See what you think. Please feel free to comment further so we can fine tune this list. I DO plan on sending a summary of our Wish List to a long list of publishers of crochet books. Really! So, if you have an opinion, strong or otherwise (and I think many of us have rather strong feelings here), post your comments. I’ll do another summary and round of comments til we get this thing properly honed. These comments are not necessarily in list of importance. It might be even more helpful if we could prioritize, so feel free to rank your ‘wishes’. Here goes:
WHAT CROCHETERS WANT IN A CROCHET BOOK SUMMARY 05/09
1. STITCH COUNTS AT END OF ROW
2. PHOTOS OF MULTIPLE VIEWS, COLOR PHOTOS, SCHEMATICS, SYMBOLS, CHARTS – LACK OF COLOR PHOTOS IS A DEAL BREAKER
3. LAY FLAT OR SPIRAL BINDING
4. SIZE – SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN A PAPERBACK NOVEL (only one person commented on size and I’d actually prefer a larger book)
5. PAPER QUALITY – MATTE, GLOSSY (too much glare), LAMINATED (can be wiped off)
6. PATTERNS – ORGANIZE BY
TYPE
SKILL LEVEL
SEASON
YARN WT
THEME
(Are there other categories we might want listed?)
7. SKILL LEVEL – DESCRIPTION (I have a problem with this as skill levels are actually highly subjective much of the time. Having a list of stitches used in the project and comments like ‘tailored’ , indicating the necessity of increasing and decreasing, might be more valuable than an arbitrary ‘easy, medium, difficult’ designation.)
8. STITCH ILLUSTRATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS – ENLARGED PHOTOS OR ILLUSTRATIONS HELP A LOT
9. AFFORDABILITY OF MATERIALS (See Item #17 below.)
10. QUICK PROJECTS (What about a mix of quick and not so quick?)
11. HOOK SIZE IN #, LETTER, OR MM (for international conversions)
12. YARN – FIBER, WPI, SIZE, WEIGHT, SUBSTITUTIONS (Problem so often is that by the time a book is published, the yarn is no longer in production.)
13. INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEFTIES
14. CATEGORIES: Not that we necessarily want all of these in the same book, I think.
BABY
DOILY
GRANNY
GARMENTS
RUNWAY
TRENDY
HOUSEHOLD/DECOR
15. BOOK, WEBSITE, ERRATA, QUESTIONS, LINKS, YOUTUBE, RESOURCE SECTION, SUPPLIES – in this digital era, it would be most helpful for us to be in touch with the author for clarifications. How practical is this??
16. ABBREVIATION CHART, GLOSSARY, LIST OF SUPPLIERS, RESOURCES, ETC.
17. EACH ITEM CAN BE PICTURED IN SPLURGE YARN AND ECONOMICAL YARN.
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CUT AND PASTE A SECTION YOU WANT TO COMMENT ON AND POST IT TO THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW. I’LL DO ANOTHER SUMMARY OF ALL COMMENTS SOON!
I want very detailed step-by-step color photographs (as in Japanese pattern books) and charted as well as traditionally written out patterns.
Uh.. Laminated?! I am not willing to pay the extra cost of laminated book pages and spiral bindings are not that important to me. People can always photocopy that page of a book they own and put it in a paper protector for their personal use. I agree, color photographs are essential.
I like it when they give a variety of good yarn choices instead of one specific brand.
Hi jd, It’s me!! My dealbreaker for a book (or magazine for that matter) if clothing items-must have larger sizes. I like having material options. I don’t like buying yarn without feeling it and highly specialized yarn is too expensive to buy with out using, I want WPI and weight. The scale of 1-5 that the yarn companies are using are not alway accurate-a ‘4’ in one yarn doesn’t work up as the same as ‘4’ in red heart-found out to my disadvantage-I now have a sweater too big and too much work to frog the whole thing.
I like the idea of the laminated book so I can mark what step I’m on. Also, if the writer could triple check their pattern to make sure it’s correct would be nice. I get so mad when I paid money for a pattern and then end up having to figure it out myself.
Thanks for the list, I like that ! I’m dreaming of self-publishing a book someday, so I’ll keep that handy.. 😛
I’ve never really had any spiral-bound book in my hands and wonder how it holds in time..but I really love the idea !
11. HOOK SIZE IN #, LETTER, OR MM (for international conversions)
I love all the ideas I read. I am thinking that this one may be a typo, because it would make more sense to have #, Letter, AND mm listed. The comment about paying more for laminating was a valid one. What if the book was made with the pages three hole punched on the left side and also so that the pages can be taken out of the book easily so they can be worked with. With the holes punched in, the pages could then be put into a binder. JMHO
I like a book which cover the classic as well as new, a doily category, especially flower: Irish crochet, flowers and leaves decorating something modern, like a cell phone case, something lacy, I like things which are quick, but I also like something lacy which I can work on a bit everyday. I guess I am basically more interested in thread.