Cat Mad Crochet

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Most motif books are pretty standard: Here is a motif, here is a diagram of the motif, here are written instructions for the motif. If it’s a good book with respectable morals, there is a little chapter in the front about working with motifs and adapting them for various uses and constructions. This is what we all expect from books of crochet motifs. Sometimes, though, there is a rare and special motif book that goes just a little beyond to be super fabulous. Amanda Perkins Desirable Crochet Motifs is one of those books.

Amanda Perkins is well known in the crochet world for her amazing and vibrant afghans. She uses relatively simple motifs and tons of colors to produce an amazing number of ends, I mean, beautiful blocks that create wonderful afghans alive with color. Yes, ends. They really are the means to greatness. She could create blocks in all one color, but the magic would be lost and the vibrancy would fade. Ends really are the means to greatness. We should all just embrace them and move on. Hint: The colors are what makes this book so special.

Of course, there is the requisite chapter in the front detailing how to use the book and make the motifs. It is perhaps a bit short and very lacking in photos to demonstrate what she says, but perhaps she is assuming you already know something of crochet and so she doesn’t have to be quite so demonstrative. It’s just something to know if you need that sort of guidance. 

Kindly, the author has provided both English and American notation for the written aspects of the patterns. Blessings on her. While not impossible to work any pattern with notation contrary to what you are used to, it is far too easy to relax into a pattern and find you flubbed a row or ten when you come out of your crochet induced trance and go to use the bathroom. Presenting both systems is a real frogging time saver. I suggest circling the method you plan to use to make it stand out even more.

After the how-to chapter, the book features chapters on hexagons (30), squares (29), and triangles (12). None of the patterns is overly complex and only one of them goes over 4 rounds with a whopping 5 rounds. These are not difficult patterns. They are fun in that most of them can be combined with each other to create new overall designs, which is really helpful if you want to make something with several motifs and don’t want the stress of figuring out which ones can be used together. 

These are all really nice features for a book, but they are not this book’s shining glory. Ms. Perkins does something I have seen few other crochet motif books do with the diagrams and the actual crocheted samples: She matches the colors round for round. For example, if the center of the diagram is in purple, the second round is done in mustard, and the final round in green, so is the actual, physical motif. 

This makes it so easy to understand the link between the diagram and the motif. I love this. I think it would be a really beneficial book for someone wanting to learn how to read diagrams or to make motifs. I know I struggled with both of those when I was learning, I think this sort of presentation would have made things much clearer for me.

So what don’t I like about this book? You knew we’d get there, didn’t you? I don’t like the way the author stitches. She was taught by her grandmother to work not into the tops of the stitches but between them. I am not a good direction reader and the first time I attempted to make one of her motifs it ended up seriously weird for stitch counts. I had to go and back and rework the pattern to work into the tops of the stitches instead of between them. For some motifs this was easy, for others it was not. Be aware of this if you get the book. If working between the stitches doesn’t bother you, you are all set. If it does, be prepared to rework some patterns. It’s an aesthetics thing. I just think they look better when the stitches are worked into the tops of the stitches from the row below. I’m a fussy little monster, I am.

Overall, the book is well worth the money and can be a great lesson in how to work crochet motifs or read diagrams or both. If you are looking to design your own Amanda Perkins inspired afghan, so you too can awesome, this is your book!