Jan Messent's Have You Any Wool?: The Creative Use of Yarn (Search Press Classics)

March 09

First published just over twenty years earlier, [this book] is a celebration of whimsical, yarn-based fun. There are pieces for box coverings, to create small people and to form beautifully mounted pictures. Each time I dip into this book I find something new: teaching crochet by working into holes punched into card, drawing as an aid to seeing, combing experimental squares to produce a fabric. It does not provide any start-to-finish instructions for projects, it does not have step-by-step photographs of techniques (although the line drawings are pretty good) but it has endured for a generation. Unsurprisingly, there is a dated air to it - but have lichens, or sheep, changed much in two decades? It won't help clothe the family - but is that why knitters knit in the developed world in 2009? But it might contribute to a sense of self-expression and some yarn-based fun.

Nov 08

In her new book, Jan Messent explores the creative use of yarn for those who have never knitted or crocheted before and for all those who enjoy creating with yarn. Using innovative and imaginative methods, Jan encourages us to work with small quantities of yarn to make decorative novelty pieces including fun figures, cats, cacti, cottages, sheep, landscapes and much more.

Nov 08

Yarncrafts are enjoying a surge of popularity at the moment, so it is a good time to reissue this lovely old classic from 1988. It has had several other reprints, and now it is once again back by popular demand. So just what is it that is so special about this book?

I guess it is quite an unusual approach to knitting and crochet, and this is all explained in the introduction. Rather than the usual format of stitch diagrams, lists of equipment you need to buy and staged diagrams of projects it takes a less structured approach. You could say in fact that it hits the ground running. It takes a look at fibers first, showing what you can do with them without even picking up a pair of needles. Although it does have a few diagrams on learning how to cast on and things like that it mentions experimentation and a freer approach to a normally format process. This sets the scene, and includes projects for a number of small figures and other sale of work items making this a very good book for children. It is a difficult book to describe, other than by saying that it looks at yarncrafts from a different angle. As mentioned in the introduction it is not specifically aimed at children although it contains many suitable projects but at anybody who prefers its approach. I particularly liked the figures that introduce each chapter and then appear as projects at the end! This one surely belongs on the keeper shelf of any yarncrafter.