Craftbooks galore

I’m not famous for my patience and because of that I still can’t crochet, knit or… (fill in another fantastic creative skill). I don’t exactly understand why I always buy secondhand craftbooks thinking: “Ah! Knitting! And oeoeoe, such nice patterns! I’ve always wanted to learn how to knit a lovely little retro jumper, so this one goes home with me!”.

My heart aches seeing all those lovely patterns in Lis Paludan’s crochet books…and not be able to execute them (unlike Ingrid, who crochets these lovely little Lis Paludan slippers).
To be honest, the only thing I’m really good at is making the things I make for my shop. Just because it didn’t took me years to learn how to draw a pattern and how to sew a blanketstitch. I’m more of a self-taught woman, that is.

You can imagine what I thought when I bumped into the book pictured. It’s called “Het grote kruissteek boek” (“The big embroidery book”) by G. Bengtsson, E. Hansen and I. Winckler. Embroidery fortunately, is a skill I master (not a very difficult skill, but it is a skill :-)). The spoiling factor in this one is my lack of patience. And the fact that the patterns that once came with the book, aren’t with the book anymore (the only disadvantage of buying second hand books).

It seems to be the perfect excuse to not embroider these and just look at them and dream about that day you hear yourself thinking: “Wow, such nice retro patterns, I’ve always wanted to spent a month sewing a super-retro embroidery!”

Now I think about it, that day might break earlier than expected.
The tree with the little birds at the bottom right doesn’t seem to be a very time-consuming project. If only I could get my hands on that pattern…
anyone?