CARTIER-BRESSON – LES POINTS DE CROCHET
C-YS538 Cartier-Bresson – Points de Crochet
Stapled softcover with the old spinning wheel cover, 48 pages not including the covers. Contains pictures and descriptions of crochet stitches. A section on tunisian stitches including one that looks like knitting, picots and other edging variations, astrakan stitch that looks like bubbles, stitches that include fringe, and many more.
Scanned by Seya Wijnsma-Spek, edited by Sytske Wijnsma.
As time progresses, more and more possibilities of a crochet hook are discovered. This book from the 1920s already shows a veritable treasure of stitches, compared with the Dutch book Penelope from the 1820s that discussed two or three stitches, no more. The books of Odette de Puigaudeau (from the same time as this Cartier-Bresson book) already showcase some marvellous crochet patterns that rightly would be considered pieces of art, if artists and curators would have been inclined to take women’s work seriously. Fortunately there’s some more attention in recent times, where the “if it’s not the work of men, it’s not relevant” is not universally subscribed to. But there’s a long way to go to equality. So if you can crochet, take up your crochet hook and safeguard our needlework skills! I can publish books, but that’s paper (or pixels) only until it has been used to create actual art. And if it’s just for practical purposes, that counts maybe even more. If people keep and teach the basic skills, the art will not be lost.