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Knowledge hub

Tospika Handcraft Library

Handcraft culture, techniques, materials and care guides in one place. A new section opens every week.

Sections

Colorful yarns, crochet hooks and knitting needles beside handmade knit and crochet samples

Crochet & Knitting Library

The Knitting and Crochet Library is a comprehensive resource for exploring the techniques, materials and cultural heritage behind every stitch. Discover reliable guides on crochet, knitting, amigurumi, traditional techniques, yarn selection and the care of handmade products, while getting to know the work of women makers featured on Tospika.

Colourful threads, an embroidery hoop and handmade fabric samples decorated with traditional motifs

Embroidery Library

The Embroidery Library is a comprehensive resource for exploring the techniques, materials and cultural heritage behind patterns created on fabric. Discover reliable guides to cross-stitch, tel kırma metal-wire embroidery, counted-thread work and other traditional embroidery techniques. Learn about motifs, materials, methods and care while exploring original work by women makers featured on Tospika.

Recently added

Embroidery hoop, colourful threads and fabric with botanical motifs representing Anatolian needlework traditions

History and Culture

The History of Embroidery and Anatolian Traditions

Embroidery has no single documented birthplace. In Anatolia, needlework developed into a layered field connecting court and household, ceremony and daily life, memory and skilled labour.

Crochet hook, burgundy thread, lace motif and antique needlework book arranged over a map of Europe and Anatolia

History and Culture

History of Crochet: Where, When and Who Invented It?

Crochet has no securely documented single inventor or birthplace. Its modern history becomes clearer through nineteenth-century pattern books, lace production and the movement of domestic craft knowledge.

Hoop showing running, back, stem, chain and satin stitches beside colourful embroidery threads

Technique

Basic Embroidery Stitches for Beginners

Learning embroidery begins with a small group of stitches that create lines, fills, leaves and texture, rather than memorising a long list of names.

Burgundy crochet swatch and hook beside olive knitted swatch and two wooden needles

Technique

Crochet vs Knitting: What Is the Difference?

Crochet usually works one active loop with a hook; knitting holds many live loops across two needles. That structural difference changes the process, fabric and best uses.

Cotton and linen fabrics with embroidery needles, colourful threads, hoop and small scissors

Materials and Tools

How to Choose Fabric Thread and Needles for Embroidery

Good embroidery depends on a compatible system: fabric structure, thread weight, needle point and hoop tension must support the technique and intended use.

Cream, terracotta, olive, burgundy and blue yarns in varied weights arranged with matching swatches

Materials and Tools

How to Choose the Right Yarn for Crochet and Knitting

Yarn choice is more than colour. Fibre, thickness, twist, yardage, care and gauge work together to determine how a handmade object looks and performs.

About the library

These guides explain handcraft techniques and traditions in plain language; history and culture articles name their sources.