Crochet Adorned

One of my favorite things to do is to doodle. When I was in Graphic Design, I doodled with a pencil or pen. Now that I'm in Crochet Design, I doodle in yarns and hooks. One of the ways I doodle is to take "classic" stitch patterns, and change them somehow, to make them uniquely my own. Then, of course, I incorporate them into a design. :-) Or, I just do something different with a basic stitch. Or, I look at stitch dictionaries, and get ideas from them. When I work from stitch dictionaries, I like to work from stitch diagrams and/or clear photos that show the stitch pattern straight on. (Many of the older stitch dictionaries that I have just show the photos, along with the written directions.) But I am always on the lookout for more stitch dictionaries. And even if there are only one or two new-to-me stitch patterns in the book, I must add it to my library. It's worth it to me - I teach classes on various stitches at the CGOA Conferences, and I do research in my own library. And I can come up with new, invented-by-me, stitch patterns to teach my students. So, today, I was at Barnes&Noble, and as usual, I wandered over to the Needlecraft books with my decaf Americano in hand. I really didn't expect to see anything new - I had just been there on Friday, 2 days ago, and there were no new books then. But, I looked there anyway. And, what do you know, I found a new book! Crochet Adorned, by Linda Permann. I thought, oh - just another crocheted flower book. And I almost didn't look through it. After all, I was holding on to my Americano, and couldn't find a space on the shelf to put in down. But then, I saw a space on a shelf below, so I carefully set my coffee down, and picked up the book. And looked through it. And saw it was also a stitch dictionary. And Linda had included some interesting variations on standard stitches, and on not-so standard stitches. And in the first section, where the projects are, there are more stitch patterns. All kinds of motifs, flowers, trims, they're all there. And ways to use them! Plus, the book is a good book for beginners - it has a basic instruction section. It tells you how to read a crochet pattern, what all the symbols mean, and how to read a stitch symbol diagram. I'm going to enjoy having this book in my library!