Stitch By Stitch

I've been meaning to tell you about this book for some time now. I bought it months back, not really knowing much about it, but I'm so pleased that I did. It's called Stitch By Stitch and it's by Jane Bull. I think the book is aimed primarily at children, but it's got the subheading A Beginner's Guide To Needlecraft, and that's really what it is.

It's a Dorling Kindersley book, so as you can imagine, the illustrations are wonderful and so clear.

The book goes through all aspects of needlecraft, embroidery, needlepoint, patchwork, applique, knitting and crochet. It starts right at the beginning with the very basics, teaches lots of different stitches and gives instructions for some wonderful projects. It tells you what you'll need for each individual project, and gives lots of handy tips along the way.

I thought I'd show you a few of my favourite things from the book.

Pretty Birdies. This is in the embroidery section.

Squares And Triangles. This is in the patchwork section.

Mmm ... Doughnuts. This is in the applique section.

The Lollipop Dolls. This is in the knitting section.

Crowls. This is in the crochet section.

Bags Of Stripes. This is in the crochet section.

This is only a small selection of projects which are in the book, there's many, many more.

Eleanor has been trying to learn to knit for such a long time. She managed the basic knit stitch, but could never keep the right number of stitches on the needle, either dropping a few on each row, or else picking up ones which weren't there. With the help of this book, she's managed to follow one of the patterns, and even though she went wrong on one of the rows, she had the confidence to take it back herself and sort it out. She's also taught herself to crochet using the instructions from this book, in fact she knows more crochet stitches than I do now.

I'd definitely recommend the book. It would make a lovely Christmas present for a young child just starting out on their needlecrafting journey, or for an older child, like Eleanor, who knows the very basics but wants to learn a little more and have some fun projects to make. It would even make a great gift to yourself. I fully intend to make some of the projects in the book, they're so fun and cute.