This pattern is available as ad-free, printable PDF on Etsy HERE and on LoveCrafts HERE.
Add to your Ravelry HERE.
Pin it for later HERE.
I am a crocheting geographer: I design crochet maps. I am also a mother and I know that children are willing to learn. Maps are an amazing tool to learn about the world, however when children are small, they tend to destroy delicate things, tear up books, you know what I mean. I wouldn’t give them my beautiful big atlases with detailed maps!
But I do love maps and our home is full of them. I’ve framed some of the maps of distant places from my grandfather’s collection (he’s traveled the world as an electrician on ships), so they decorate our walls. But since I got the idea of crocheting maps, we have maps also on cushions, blankets and wall hangings.
See my Africa Map C2C Blanket FREE Pattern HERE.
One day on Instagram I saw a pretty crochet quiet book with pictures of animals. I liked the idea very much and I know that most children love books. They like to “read” them by themselves, slowly turning pages and talking to them, or sitting on their parents’/ grandparents’ lap and discussing together about the pictures inside. And suddenly I thought: how about a quiet book with maps? A crochet world atlas for children? Who can do it if not me?
This pattern is available as ad-free, printable PDF on Etsy HERE and on LoveCrafts HERE.
Add to your Ravelry HERE.
Pin it for later HERE.
It couldn’t be very complicated and have too many pages. I decided I will include continents: Africa, Europe, Asia, North and South Americas, Australia and Antarctica. Then there would be western and eastern hemispheres for the covers.
I knew already how to design crochet maps, that’s colorwork with single crochet stitches throughout. One question that I had in mind was: how do I join the pages? It contained 10 squares/pages altogether, so it was quite thick. And I thought about this technique used in thick paper books: after joining pages in pairs, I joined each pair to the inner binding, then added a decorative spine that encompasses the atlas.
And that was it! That’s the crochet World Atlas, that a child can’t tear up, it is soft and safe, it is made of cotton – you can wash it easily, when dirty!
This pattern is available as ad-free, printable PDF on Etsy HERE and on LoveCrafts HERE.
Add to your Ravelry HERE.
Pin it for later HERE.
And the little one can learn the shapes of continents early! You can tell him/her stories connected with each place, name the most distinct peninsulas or bays, use toy animals specific for each continent and play, placing each of them on the right map… Older children can try with more detailed geographical names written on a piece of paper: the rule is to put each name in the right place on a map. Or at least – choose to which continent that name belongs. There is a multitude of possibilities playing with maps – why don’t you think of your own?
Also: who knew, that Antarctica resembles elephant’s head??? It’s on the bottom of the globe, usually nobody cares, right?
At first I wanted to include New Zealand on the page together with Australia (I know New Zealanders are disconsolate that their beautiful country is too often excluded from the maps…), but the pages are just too small and it wouldn’t in fact show the proper shape of the islands. BUT… my children told me themselves, that the blank page in my atlas, which follows the cover and I made it blue – represents the whole Oceania, which is an immense ocean area with hundreds of islands. When I heard that, I knew that the educational idea of the atlas actually worked! I wish you the same!
BTW, have a look at my New Zealand flag a few Australian patterns too!
