Library Journal
Mathorne presents a collection of 17 Tunisianwork garment patterns for adult women, with patterns that accommodate multiple sizes. The models, too, illustrate multiple racial, ethnic, and body types. The work is translated from Danish and was originally published in Britain, and the English translation comes with an abbreviation chart and a terminology conversion table (some U.S. terms are different from their British counterparts), but there is an occasional British-specific word or term that will present a minor challenge for U.S. readers. This is for intermediate and experienced users of the Tunisianwork technique, as it has only minimal instructions at the back. Mathorne assumes that crafters have already mastered both the technique and sewing basics (e.g., determining a garments size). Also, these instructions are for right-handed crafters only, with no conversion instructions for left-handed crafters.
VERDICT: This book is of limited, narrow interest, best for experienced right-handed crafters interested in making womens garments and comfortable with British terminology. If crocheters are interested in creating garments for men or children, or if they are left-handed, they will need to know how to do their own conversions. Buy only where there is demand.
@annanikipirowicz
This beautiful book is by Helle Kampp Mathorne and is full of the most exquisite Tunisian Crochet garments. I couldnt help myself and had a quick look already and oh my. The book is full of beautiful designs and so many of them with raglan shaping, which I adore!! If you need me, Ill be here devouring this book. Will tell you more about it soon. Thank you Search Press for gifting me the book and thank you Helle for designing such beauties.
@coolwooldesign
Helle Kampp Mathorne's Tunisian Crochet presents 17 gorgeous garment patterns that blend the unique textures of Tunisian crochet with elements of traditional crochet and knitting. This collection offers projects suitable for various seasons, from light summer tops to cosy winter jackets.
See full blog review here: https://coolwoolschool.com/blog-tunisian-crochet-garments
Inside Crochet
Aimed at more experienced crocheters, Danish designer Helle's latest book is filled with wearable designs. Hooked in gorgeous yarns featuring hybrid pieces combining elements of Tunisian crochet, crochet and knitting, the patterns are arranged by seasons. We love the classic styling of the V-necked Anemone Sweater and the pretty lacy mohair-silk Star Top, perfect for spring.
Slipknot
There's a touch of Scandinavian hygge about this sleek tome of Tunisian tops by Danish knitter, Helle Kampp Mathorne, who has brought together her friends and family to model her 17 sweaters, and their mutual warmth glows from its pages.
There still aren't enough books for Tunisian crocheters and many are stitch dictionaries rather than project/pattern books, so this one slips, welcomed, into a gap in the market. Helle's carefully crafted garments are organised in seasons, with four or five projects for each. My favourite is Winter's Rosemary, a long jacket with a cable-like wheatsheaf texture. Indeed, texture, rather than colour, appears to be the design focus for this collection, which offers some interesting and inspiring stitch combinations and techniques for the Tunisian crocheter interested in taking their skills to new heights. The photography is polished and the models 'real', effectively targeting a certain demographic that, you might say, is well catered for but in our own dear Guild. There is a 'but' coming, though! For my own part, Tunisian crochet, like the knitting and traditional crochet of which it is a conceptual hybrid, takes time and tenacity and I, for one, after putting in all the effort of making a full-blown garment, would prefer to end up with a wearable item that's just a teensy bit more, well, spectacular? Helle is a knitter first, I think, and her patterns for Tunisian crochet have been treated with the gravitas usually afforded to knitting, which I support wholeheartedly as it has, too often, been treated with something less than the respect it deserves - being variously named 'Afghan crochet' (giving the impression you can only make blankets with it), railway stitch and even 'idiot stitch'!
However, this book's value, for me, promised to be in some of its advanced techniques, explained through fully illustrated steps. For example, the 'Italian cast on' and the 'wheatsheaf on a diagonal', which promised to bring my skills on apace and sow some new seeds in my creative brain. So, I sat down to teach myself some new tricks. Disappointingly, I struggled and grappled, rather, with the instructions. I did, eventually, get the hang of the wheatsheaf rib, but felt it could have been explained much more succinctly. This may, partly, be to do with the translation, as I am assuming that the original script was in Danish. I'm referring to the specific action of inserting the hook and pulling a loop (in which the yarn round the hook is implied, otherwise you wouldn't be able to pull up a loop). Commonly, the written instruction after inserting your hook is 'yrh and pul' and even just 'pul'. Helle labours that same instruction into 'yarn over and pull the yarn over back through the space', making this very small action appear much more complicated, alien and potentially difficult than it really is. But once I had understood the stitch's concept, I was able to recognise that there was a missing step in the instructions where the pul part was (I think inadvertently) skipped!
Minor criticisms apart, this book is a huge achievement and Helle is clearly a master craftswoman with a wealth of knowledge and experience from which I will continue to draw. This book is a valuable addition to my bookshelf that will be much thumbed for its advanced techniques and attention to detail. More high-end Tunisian garment pattern books such as this are needed!
