Crochetterie, Cool Contemporary Crochet for the Creatively-minded by Molla Mills (Jacqui Small, RRP £20), is out now!
This perfectly formed man friendly book by Finnish crafty super star Molla Mills is a great new publication aimed predominantly at getting men into crochet!
It's the sequel to the much loved Modern Crochet and this new book continues to pack beautiful scandi style to the brim!
Finding the
perfect craft discipline for your skills is sometimes hard and even
harder when there's a perception of suitability mainly when it comes to
genders.
What Molla manages to do is offer up crochet that is gender free,
though obviously - and like I said before - it is primarily geared to men but if you're not a guy don't let that put you off... it has lots of projects that anyone can make so it is
in fact a very unisex book.
When we hosted our craft nights I noticed how most participants were female so getting guys involved has been a long time struggle and one I totally understand.
However we did get the occasional man joining in but hand on heart... I wish there had been more! We did try to have a selection of activities which suited everyone regardless and we do believe that
making is a beautiful thing which all genders, ages and backgrounds can benefit from!
Not only does craft making have health benefits it also provides a nice respite from the modern world plus I kinda think it's
pretty beautiful to see a guy being creative and using his hands to make
useful objects too.
Even though it's targeted at
the male of the species I would still be happy to make any of the projects in this book as being super feminine, aka girlie girl, isn't my thing either!
It's really refreshing to see a book which is open to all. As you know there are already tons of books offering saccharine sweet projects, which if that's your type of thing great, but if you prefer things a bit less twee and pink then wrap your peepers around this amazingly beautiful book... Excuse the pun but... it'll have you hooked!!!
Molla's book is divided into sections and it even has instructions for beginners as well as a whittle your own crochet hook tutorial. The patterns are divided into categories: Home, Clothes, Travel and Equipment so there are lots of great projects for all sorts of abilities as well as functions.
With easy to follow patterns that any novice can get to grips with I'm sure that even the most anxious of crocheters will be able to finish at least one of the easier projects!
Some of our favourites are the quirkier projects like make your own death metal band banner or the speaker slip cover so all in all you can still craft and keep your
Rock n roll kudos alive and kicking!
What I also particularly like is the generous end section which is about 20 pages long with instructions so all in all you can pretty much complete all the 30+ projects on your own. It covers a lot of the basics which for me was excellent as I'm not a crochet pro.
There's also a nice extra bit -
Maintenance- which shows you how to stretch after long crafting sessions. As some of you might know
crochet claw for example is a real thing and your body can stiffen up when crocheting.
Molla's Brother, Pasi, a yoga instructor shows us a few exercises to help us stretch and breath so we can keep on crafting!
The actual look of the book is beautifully rugged, outdoorsy and yes I'm gonna say it again... very
Scandi!
Apart
from the awesome selection of projects and beautiful photos there are
lots of tattooed blokes with beards in chunky sweaters on skateboards
looking dashingly handsome. But you know what? I like it... in fact I
kinda have a crush on it!
And there are cute dogs too, look at that husky in a bow tie...what's not to love?!
So yes, I think it's pretty awesome and I'm sure many of you would love this book too and so will your man friends. Bearded or not, guys need some more craft in their lives so yes if you do one good deed this year get the man/men in your life crocheting!
Crochet is pretty mechanical and can be a feat of engineering so crocheting kinda suits the masculine brain... though hey, I'm no one to generalise but through experience I found that lots of men like the more technical crafts!
OK so it is a craft book that has made me swoon -
"stop being so gushy!" you cry- though in my defence I can say that bringing men folk into the craft fold is something which we've fought for for a long time so it's really more admiration and respect that I feel for what Molla's achieved.
What Molla's managed to do is make craft accessible and that's amazing!
But it's also so much more than
just a craft book... her projects are fun, useful and all though I'm not an expert crocheter this has nudged me into wanting to learn more.
Blimey I've even managed to understand what all the abbreviations mean and that was something that had put me off crochet originally... patterns scare me but now I feel that I can actually try a project without coming out in stress hives!
So if it gets someone excited and wanting to explore crochet
-or any other craft discipline- then that's gotta be good... Right?!
To
order 9781845436421 Crochetterie with a special Craft Guerrilla blog reader discount code for £16.00*
including p&p,
telephone 01903 828503 and quote offer code QPG452.
Or send a cheque made payable to :- Littlehampton Book
Services Mail Order Department, Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264,
Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3TG.
Please quote the offer code QPG452 and include your name and address details. *UK ONLY -
Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.
