KYUUTO! Japanese Crafts - Lacy Crochet.....

Over the past few weeks I have been steadily working my way through Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts - Lacy Crochet and discovered lots of new things not only about crochet but about my own learning style so I thought I would give this little gem a mention.

As with all things Japanese this book is visually pleasing but I think the main attraction of this book is way it presents it's patterns.

Most Western crochet & knitting patterns still only offer written word patterns e.g. 

Row 1: DC in fourth ch from hook (3 skipped chs count as first dc), skip next ch, 3 dc in next ch,

Japanese crochet and knitting books however offer patterns in picture form; using symbols to represent each stitch. This sounds and looks a lot worse than it really is.

Kyuuto! Lacy Crochet is written in english so all the pattern symbols and crochet stitches are fully explained and the book also provides a great reference section in case you get stuck (which you wont').

To help you further every project lists the crochet hook size you need and how to start and finish the project.

I have never been a fan of long winded explanations written or spoken so I find using the symbol pattern much easier than the traditional written crochet pattern. I can see before hand what my project should look like at every stage and I can spot immediately  when I have gone wrong which is always a bonus.

I am half way through Kyuuto! Lacy Crochet and I am now that comfortable with using the picture pattern that I feel confident that I can use the untranslated Japanese crochet books I found the other day in Kinokuniya (Sydney) www.kinokuniya.com

I give this book 10/10  - it really is a little gem.