Monday, December 9, 2013
Paper Yarn by Uta Donath, Eva
Hauch, Petra Hoffman, and Claudia Huboi
In recent
years it has become a common practice for crochet designers to “hook up” with a
yarn company to design with their latest yarns. The designer’s expertise in
addition to lots of swatching brings out the best in the yarn, provides
upscale designs that crocheters hunger for and brings notice to the
versatility of crochet.
Recently, I
unintentionally came upon an exciting book while passing by the “Hobbies” cart
at my local library. Paper Yarn is a unique and exciting book which brings a
wealth of knowledge about style and technique to the niche of using paper yarn.
The five authors bring an impressive resume of experience in the fiber field to
their presentation of this book: textile and fashion design, creative design at
magazines and publishers to name a few!
They have
teamed up with Habu Textiles, BJ’s Craft Supplies and Papershed who provided the materials
which are used in the basic yet interesting patterns for projects in 6
techniques: crochet, knitting, weaving, sewing, braiding and layering &
wrapping. Since I am a die-hard crocheter, I will not comment on the quality of
the patterns in any of the techniques except crochet. I will say, however, that
each chapter provides an excellent tutorial on the use of paper yarn in that
specific technique in addition to a wonderful overall review of the characteristics of paper yarn in the
introduction, “Material Facts.”
Beautiful
color photography and styling of the projects makes me want to make each and
every crochet project in the book: bowl, basket, container, hat and sculpture.
The book contains 24 decorative and functional projects to make from paper
yarn, paper ribbon, paper twine and paper cord. Excellent illustrated
step-by-step instructions ensure you can complete every project successfully.
I can't wait to get started on the basket and as luck would have it, I have a stash of Habu paper yarn!
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| Habu Shosheni Viscose |
This book
was first published in Switzerland in 2008 by Haupt Bern and translated and published
by St. Martin’s Griffine in 2009. It is
available on Amazon for an incredibly low price. If, like me, you just concentrate
on only one of the needle arts, this book is still well worth having on your
fiber arts bookshelf. The sheer joy of its bountiful color and style has plenty
to make you smile. Oh, and by the way, I went to the stacks and got a crochet book which I surreptitiously placed on the hobbies cart as I noticed it was the one hobby that had not been selected. Holding my hook high ...
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