Surface Works by Jenny Dowde, softback published by Sally Milner, Australia. Available in the UK, ISBN 978-1-8635-1375-3, price 17.99 from www.searchpress.com
Add surface decoration to plain knitted or crocheted backgrounds. Looking at 35 projects which include scarves, hats and neckpieces and shawls and tops, each item is decorated using techniques that are fully described and illustrated.
The first half of the book shows techniques and ideas. The book begins with ideas for texture in knitting and crochet and a number of stitches are illustrated and instructions are given. I think the most interesting of these are picot and fluffle. Edgings, braids and cords follow on. If you really want edgings and paterns of this nature, this is done far better by Nicky Epstein. Next up is what is described as painless colour knitting. We then go on to collage surfaces – adding embellishments, which is an interesting concept, but I don’t see too many people adding paper clips to their knitted surfaces, safety pins in the punk era maybe. The Arty Bits section continues this them and is a better attempt at ideas for surface decoration including ridges and freeform stitching, although the latter is not explained in detail.
The 35 projects shows the techniques in practice. They include some very good ideas for bags and cushions. Equally the ideas for crocheted jewellery are interesting. I found the ideas used for scarves and hats, jackets and tops not so successful. There is no shaping to the garments and they look awkward.
This book has its good and bad points. It will no doubt give you ideas to follow on your own and can be used as a starting point.