Cat Mad Crochet

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

If you’ve read my other crochet book reviews, you know I love to read crochet books published in other countries, so Essential Crochet Dictionary by Sophie Martin is a perfect choice for me. It was originally published in 2016 as L’essentiel des Points de Crochet, which directly translates to “The Essentials of Crochet Stitches”. I think they should have kept this translation because it gives a better sense of what you will get with this book. I don’t know if it is a book for everyone, but it does fill a spot for people who want to learn more crochet stitches but need a little extra help doing so.

The book starts with a terms used section, but it is unlike most list based terms used sections in crochet books. Instead, you get a small description of how to make each stitch and a picture of each stitch in progress. For someone wanting to take steps into more complex stitches, this is so helpful. The little descriptions also explain the abbreviations used for the terms and the purpose of the stitches described if it is anything beyond a basic stitch. 

The next section builds off of this and gives a detailed discussion of how to form the basic stitches (chains, singles, half doubles, doubles, triples, and basic Tunisian stitch). There are pictures and the steps are presented in full words without the abbreviations that can be confusing to new crocheters. The abbreviations are provided, though, so the author is setting the user up to succeed with more standard pattern reading. 

The rest of the book is broken down into sections:

Full stitches – 20 stitch patterns

Mesh stitches – 8 stitch patterns

Open stitches – 16 stitch patterns

Relief stitches – 7 stitch patterns

Border stitches – 11 stitch patterns

Tunisian stitches – 6 stitch patterns

These are not the most advanced and unusual stitches. They are first steps away from projects with all single or double crochets, but this is a vital step in learning to crochet and this book is perfect for that audience. Each stitch pattern has a two page spread. The first page presents a picture of the stitch pattern and tells you which stitches you will use to create it and what the pattern is good to use for. The second page describes the construction in traditional notation and in words with pictures. There is a tip that helps make clear the purpose or the means of the construction. Pairing traditional notation with a fully written out description of how to make the stitches is brilliant. You don’t really see that in crochet stitch dictionaries. This one is special and, therefore, perfect for newer crocheters looking for guidance to grow their understanding of the craft.

I have only two complaints about this book. First, I would have loved to see diagrams included with each stitch pattern. So many crochet patterns these days rely on diagrams, and sometimes only diagrams, that it seems a little lacking to not include them. That being said, there is enough here to educate someone looking to learn more about crochet to ignore my little diagram complaint.

The other complaint is about the linen/moss stitch. If you google linen or moss crochet stitch, you get the standard single crochet, chain 1, single crochet row followed by a row in which you work singles into the chain spaces and chains above the singles from the last row. In this book, linen/moss stitch is presented as a single crochet v stitch with two chains worked between two singles that are worked into the chain space of the row below. I’ve used this stitch and I like it (see my Stellar Sleeves Sweater), but it is not linen or moss stitch. 

To demonstrate, this is moss/linen stitch:

And this is a sideways view of single crochet v stitch:

These are very minor and meaningless complaints. This is a good book for someone looking to improve their skills. So many people learn crochet from online videos today, but there are people who will learn better from a well-made book. This is that book. If you are newer to crochet and looking for stitch making guidance in book form, get this book. It’s going to be such a help in moving you forward.