Friday book review

Because I want to try and add an example of something that I've made from each of the books that I review I'm going to be now only doing a review every two weeks. These new bi-weekly reviews should hopefully give me enough time to have a go at crafting one of the projects. This should in turn help me to write a better review of the book and give you something more exciting to look at than just the cover image.


"AntiCraft: Knitting, beading & stitching for the slightly sinister" by Renee Rigdon and Zabet Stewart

ISBN: 978-1-60061-030-1

Sometimes the sugary sweetness of crafting can get too much and after looking through page after page of cute bunnies, pretty pink booties and lovable soft toys you start to get tooth ache. The antidote for that is probably this book - but be warned as this isn't crafting for the faint of heart!

This book has it all from a load of skull and crossbones emblazoned projects, evil Easter eggs and crochet whip with handcuff set. There is something for knitters, crocheters and people who sew (surely not sewers though?) alike with some simple getting started instructions at the back for beginners.

There are a large number of projects in this book that I will probably never make as I'm fairly sure that I don't need a menstrual cup cosy shaped like a squid or a two headed albino rat. However there are a small handful of projects that are really lovely, like these beautiful little owls by one of my favourite crochet designers Alice Merlino. Alice is super talented (does some beautiful crochet as well as very cute felt soft toys) and I'm a regular reader of her blog so when she posted about being one of the contributors to this book I just had to get my hands on a copy. The pattern instructions for these owls were simple to follow and as the owls themselves were such quick projects I was able to make all three of them for you to see - hooray!

As well as all the projects you also get a really good fun read. There are lots of little tongue in cheek articles about the dark side of crafting with plenty of Gothic old style images to enjoy and the occasional anticraft comic strip thrown in as well. This book is well worth having a good look through, but if you are looking for a more practical project focused book then this isn't one that you would want to spend money on.