THE NEEDLEWORKER'S CONSTANT COMPANION

In a single, well-designed volume, the basics of sewing (clothes, toys, curtains, slipcovers), embroidery, knitting, and crocheting are systematically introduced. Although the diagrams could come from Woman's Day, the photographs of finished pieces often look more like Harper's Bazaar--not the pink rickrack items one might expect. There's a classy trapunto jacket, a child's quilt cover emblazoned with a Picasso-like dove (a motif modified for lamp shade and window shade), a man's Guernsey sweater, crocheted bikinis and floor mats. Instructions for a sturdy jacket, brightly striped gloves and socks, cafe curtains--all this illustrated in either standard photographs or atmospheric painterly reproductions.