I just have to ask, where do you find good crocheting books?

[shella85222]

I am sorry but I just have to ask, where do you find good crocheting books? I live in a small town in Arizona and the only shopping store that is very big is Wal-Mart. I go there all the time to find crocheting books and there is hardly anything there. (Just a few small pamphlets.) I love to go to Joann’s in Mesa but that is like an hour away. So it is hard for me to do that. I have ordered books from the net, but it so much nicer to be able to look through the book’s before you buy so you can see if that is really what you are wanting. It is so frustrating to find good crocheting books. Wal-mart has a lot of knitting and other craft magazines but no crochet. I even had someone call for an associate to (2 times) come and talk to me but of course nobody showed up after I stood there for 30 min. I spend a lot of my time surfing the net trying to find what I am wanting.

[donnalynn2]

Hmmm, do you have any local town craft stores??? Sometimes they'll carry them. Both my local Michaels and Jo-Anns has a nice selection of books. Wally World hardly has anything... We do have a Griffins which is a local in town store and when I went in there they only had knitting stuff, but I'm hoping that after my talk with the head of the yarn dept that will change...

 

I agree, I love to look through books to make sure it's something I want... Good luck!!!

[craftybutterfly]

Most of the books I've bought, I've gotten online at amazon or on ebay. Amazon has used books. when i buy books, its usually because I've seen a finished project featured here and liked it enough to go the buy the book or mag it came from. my local walmart usually does not have a good selection of books. sometimes i just puruse amazon and add stuff to my wish list and buy them when i can. just cruise around the net and ebay.

[natalie058]

In real life, most of the good books I find are at my bookstores, Barnes and Noble or Borders - no Books-a-Million around here! They actually have a fairly decent selection, of course with more knitting books but I can generally find some nice crochet titles. However, I hate to pay full price anything on my teeny tiny budget, so I usually browse them there then order them from Amazon or the online site, where the sales are much better.

 

But - sometimes I'm impatient and buy them sight unseen, like I did with Cool Crochet. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed!! I also just did that with the Harmony guides - I've never seen them in person but I've heard such high reviews I just went ahead and got them.

 

My Michaels and Joann's *sometimes* have good books, but usually the crochet ones are few and far between. They're also highly picked over, and in my personal experience, often worn or damaged. Plus, at my stores at least, they don't get any *new* books - only ones that have been out for sometime and I've usually seen somewhere else.

[halesje]

Since I tend to be really cheap about a lot of things, I go to the library. My library has a ton of crochet books. I can peruse them at my leisure, and then if I decide I like it well enough, I'll buy it from Amazon.

[mudpie]

As someone else mentioned, Michael's and Joann's often has them. But knit books usually are more available than crochet, so I tend to order online as well. Try Amazon.com. Often you are able to take a peek at what's inside a book.

[wendyb532]

I get most of mine from ebay or amazon.com. I also have gotten some from Michael's when they have a coupon for 50% off although most of the good ones are gone really early. Do you have a library close by? I got quite a few from my local library and if I really like them then I go online and buy it otherwise I just keep them and copy a few patterns. I would try the library first if you can.

 

 

Wendyb532

[Qmare]

I've gotten a lot of great books and pattern leaflets on Ebay. Surprisingly, Costco had a really neat one a few weeks ago. There is a local yarn shop that usually stocks the more recent ones, too. In your situation, I'd just go for it on Ebay! Pattern leaflets are pretty inexpensive and some sellers have a whole bunch so you can have them all shipped together. You won't have the benefit of seeing it all before hand but I find that it's always a fun time looking through them and seeing the surprises.

 

There are, of course, a million and one patterns for free on the net, too!

 

[donnalynn2]

My Michaels and Joann's *sometimes* have good books, but usually the crochet ones are few and far between. They're also highly picked over, and in my personal experience, often worn or damaged. Plus, at my stores at least, they don't get any *new* books - only ones that have been out for sometime and I've usually seen somewhere else.

 

Boy, isn't that the truth? There is a huge display of crochet booklets and it doesn't look like it was made for larger books because all of them are folded down by gravity. I would never pay that kind of money for something that looks like it's been around for years! They really should cycle through the books there... My local Jo-Anns has a nice rack for their books and most of them are in perfect condition.

 

Like another poster said, eBay is a good way to go! Even though I couldn't look at everything, I got like 7 crochet mags for less than $7.00 incl shipping and it turns out only one of the booklets I won't ever use! That's ok too as that will go to my trade pile!!!

[shella85222]

I think I will start looking for books on ebay or amazon. I have only one craft store here and I seen about 6 leaflets there and they were as old as I am... Dont ask how old I am... LOL..

[origami]

I think I will start looking for books on ebay or amazon. I have only one craft store here and I seen about 6 leaflets there and they were as old as I am... Dont ask how old I am... LOL..

 

If you are near a big city (Phoenix or Tucson?) you should have a decent selection at Barnes and Noble or Borders. JoAnne's usually has a good variety. Michael's has mostly leaflets. Call around to LYSs in those cities and see what they have.

[NurseFrawg]

Libraries

Used book stores

Flea markets

Yard sales/ Rummage sales

Thrift stores

Friends of friends who know people who used to crochet...

Elizabeth

- my local wally mart never has anything good crochet wise and the JoAnn's is skimpy on the crochet pattern department.

[jacqui]

i buy the best books at markets and garage sales and second hand stores. Other than that i use the library or sometimes your newsagency can order specific books if you ask them do they have particular craft book suppliers. You can ask at local craft groups or spinning groups and they sometimes have their own library stash . I have had to do this over the years because things were almost impossible to get here in Australia unless you sent overseas. The internet has made finding things much easier. Interweave press are a good place to start.

[Stacey]

They're also highly picked over, and in my personal experience, often worn or damaged.

Ack, I hate that. I was in a Joann's recently and was having trouble finding the price for a booklet (it wasn't behind them like it usually is), and the salesperson who was in the aisle at the time *bent the whole bunch of them forward* instead of lifting them up to look behind That kind of thing makes me totally cringe--I worked in bookstores for so long and love books of any kind so much that I can't cope with book abuse.

 

And yes, a lot of what I see in Joann's is shopworn from people doing things like that or cramming them back into the wire racks (and IMO books shouldn't be stored in that kind of wire rack--it invites damage), but there's a big Joann's about an hour from where I live that I make it to once in a while, and I always take my 40% off coupon or whatever they've got going that week so I can get one of the leaflets for cheap.

 

Other than that, more expensive books I usually get out of the library so as to avoid the expense--but if money isn't so much of an issue the library is still a great resource so you know what you're getting if you're buying online. If your library doesn't have much in the way of crochet books, talk to the librarian about how to do interlibrary loan--that's how I get pretty much all of my books because my library is so tiny...

[13bodies]

I do a lot of ordering from Amazon or Annie's Attic, but lately Hobby Lobby and Michael's have a decent selection of crochet books.

 

Usually our Books-A-Million has a good hobby section but last time I went they had an entire shelf of knitting books and only 2--count 'em, TWO--crocheting books. Bleah.

[PBLKNP]

I've never heard of Hobby Lobby...is it a store or an online source (or both)?

[Stacey]

It's a store--I don't think you can order online from them. There's a list of there stores here: http://www.hobbylobby.com/site3/store/locations.cfm and also at the site you can look at their weekly flyers if (like me) you live too far from one to get them in your local paper...

[Hounddog]

I don't buy books anymore there are so many free patterns online. I bought a plastic storage thing that's flat about the right size to hold my printed paper and keep all my free patterns in there. This way I'm not buying a book that I may only use 1 pattern . Just type in free crochet patterns in your browser and a lot of sites will come up. I think there aren't very many crochet books because it is so popular right now and people are grabbing them up Maybe a crochet magazine would be good and it would be seasonal too. :manyheart

[Harvestar]

I've found a really great selection of crochet books at the Michael's in Tucson (both locations I've been to). I also saw a great selection at the Purls in Tucson too. (and there's a Purls waaay up north in Oro Valley, but I didn't look at their books when I was there - I looked more closely around the east side location store)

 

I'm not sure if Mesa or Tucson is closer for you, but I know Casa Grande is part of our Girl Scout Council as I'm supposed to go up there to do an Astronomy event (if enough people sign up...) in January.

[jpr54_]

I live in Bergen County, New Jersey

We have a large inter library loan system-that is how I find and look at crochet and other books b4 I buy them.

[beachlady]

Leisure Art Booklets, are great and accurate, that is most important to me, they usually have many patterns per booklet, and I am never disappointed. You can get them online at their site. Also Encyclopedia of Crochet, is excellent resourse. Normally $25 but can get it onsale for about $12.00, it has so much info and pattern stitches that I use to make up my own stuff. I love this book, Your right about Wally World, they USED to carry a lot of patterns, but not anymore. But my most best place for patterns is this SITE. I have printed more patterns than I will ever be able to make in my life time, and its free. And all are fantastic.

[quirkyvirgo]

As far as the new books coming out, I usually look at bigger bookstores and thumb through the books to make sure there are several patterns I like (I had to limit myself to only buying books that had at least 5 patterns I would make) then I buy them on Amazon. It ends up being much cheaper, shipping is free for orders over $25, and that way I can see exactly what I am buying.

[natcat]

Hello Shella You can probably find crochet books at a book store:hook ... I used to live in Glendale, & now our 2 sons, & their families live across the street from each other. We're going to look for crochet books this weekend, at our Barnes & Noble Book store, I need some also... Good Luck

p.s. last night I found a small book of crochet stitches in wal mart in the fabric & yarn dept.

[Gran]

If you find the title, and author or publisher of what you want, a good source of used books is: www.abebooks.com

[natcat]

Hello Gran !!

I appreciate any help that I can get, because where we are, they really don't have many good crocheting books, we still have to go look in Barnes & Noble, I just been busy with the holidays.

I think I need another cup!!!