Also, I think that Material Obsession is an Aussie book. Thought I better stand up for my adopted homeland :)

A couple of my favorites:

“The Embroiderer’s Handbook” by Margie Bauer published by David and Charles, UK. Anyone, even someone who has never had a needle and thread in their hand, can learn to embroider using this well constructed collection of how-to’s. The process for making every stitch is beautifully illustrated using pictures backed up with well written text.

“The Polymer Clay Techniques Book” by Sue Heaser, published by North Light Books US. Before you and I made all the polymer clay candy for our “permanent” gingerbread houses, I had never touched a piece of polymer clay. The techniques provided in Sue’s book are so clearly illustrated and described that this absolute newbie was able to create polymer ribbon candy, rock candy with tiny trees and lemons in the center, twisted stripe candy sticks… in no time at all. Sue’s book teaches me how to create what is in MY mind!

I definitely would like to see more craft books published using technique-centric focus. As I said, those are the ones I am most likely to purchase. Even more so in this economy when acquiring a library of books – each with one project I like – is not an option.

Bravo, Diane, for inspiring such a lively discussion on the subject of craft book content!

I loved Craftivity, too – a really unexpected take on craft.

Craftivity by Tsia Carson – a huge variety of projects in all craft genres, some essential process photos, but mostly gorgeous, inspirational beauty shots and super clever and unique ideas.

Knitorama and Hookorama by Rachael Matthews – there are good learn-to-knit and crochet intro sections in both books for those in need of some process help, but I love these books for the wacky awesome projects. The photography and styling is super silly, and they remind you that yarn is fun and inspire you to create silly things.

Intertwined by Lexi Boeger – For spinning art yarn, this book has great value for process, projects, and inspiration. I love that it goes into detail about how to create different kinds of yarns (kind of the main point), and gives a bunch of patterns for handspun, and also has tons of space devoted to showing the work of art spinners for pure inspiration – definitely my ideal type of craft book!

Knitprovisation by Cilla Ramnek – One of my all-time favorites and exactly the opposite of what you like best, so I think it's a good example of both how different books appeal to different crafters, and how books can be really fabulous even if they break all the rules of what a good craft book should be. Though it is by a New York publisher, I'm pretty sure the author is european (she's a designer for Ikea!) and it definitely doesn't feel like a US craft book. Basically no how-tos at all, just pure inspiration, it's all about encouraging you to improvise your own creations (knit, crochet, and sewn) – the beautiful photographs are paired with descriptive paragraphs about each item, so you can try to recreate something similar if you so choose. It's funny how the US publisher tried to market it as a more typical US book, by putting “70 imaginative projects…” on the cover and the cheesy tagline “be cool – don't stick to the rules!” on the back, kind of implying that it's more of a project-based book instead of what it actually is.

For the record, I loved your Japanese vs. US books post, and I completely agree with you that, generally speaking, those Japanese publishers put out books superior to our stick-to-what-the-mainstream-wants US publishers, as I'm sure you already know ;)