Crochet Fairy Tales: Cottage Stories
Crochet Fairy Tales: Cottage Stories
Over Forty Enchanting Patterns
Kerry Lord
David & Charles
Crochet has long since been used as a method of making for young ones. From baby blankets to stuffed bunnies, we will have seen it all. Think about all the stories you tell to your own little one or one you look after. Or do you remember being lulled to sleep by your own? Whatever the case, we will all remember being told tales and stories and how they made us feel. The characters, Red Riding Hood being just one….now visualise them in crochet form. Want to try?
I will use key headings to isolate factors of this book which I feel are worth noting
Only for children?
Pah no, the author themselves tells us that the work is for both adults and children. Do not tell me that you do not love a fairy tale or want your own happy ending.
The writing
Note the front and actually the book’s theme too - all very old traditional children’s story don’t you think? Ties in very well and is sympathetic thematically.
The colour palette
Restrained, we learn of only twelve shades - thus less to purchase at once. (page 14)
Instead of the projects they are called stories
There are six of them, I will not spoil and tell you which ones they are - but you already know Red Riding Hood in one. The stories themselves have been told in a personal way by the author and a fellow ‘story highlights’ have been chosen to become the possible projects - for Red for example, they are: Red Riding Hood, A basket of Cake & Wine, (although I never did imagine red a drinker!?) Wolf, Posy of flowers, Grandmothers nightwear', I think that’s enough for one story don’t you?! The rest of the stories work in a similar manner.
When you think about it, what does the art of crochet lend itself to?
I fondly remember days with my own grandmother spent ‘spinning a yarn’ a story - often Red Riding Hood actually ! In other words, the slow craft of crochet allows for time to narrate, to pass on tales, to connect with others whilst making new and being creative. I feel that the connection to children’s fairy tales here is a match made in heaven. As the author mentions in her Introduction ‘If a Fairy Tale is a story of transformation, then this crocheted retelling where balls of yarn become the characters within those tales is surely the most magical’.
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