10 Comprehensive Hobby Books For Mom

From the owner and creator of Breadtopia comes a comprehensive introduction to sourdough bread baking. 

Beginning with a fermented, yeasty concoction called a starter, this cookbook features written and photographed tutorials covering the first six days of bringing your starter to life. 

You’re given an in-depth understanding of how sourdough bread is made, and a whole slew of recipes to add to your arsenal. This book includes everything you “knead” to know about sourdough: 

• Making, feeding, storing, and reactivating starters
• A complete guide to bread baking, including beginner recipes, glossary, and troubleshooting tips for every step along the way
• Recipes for every skill level, from basic no-knead recipes to Chocolate Babka so your skills expand as the dough rises

Most cookbooks you see on the shelf include meals that seem like they’re preparing to feed a small country. 

Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but if you’re only looking to feed a few folks at a small dinner party or just want to use up the last of the ingredients in your pantry, you’ll only want to bake a modest amount of treats. 

While this usually means doing complicated conversions to make sure you have the correct amount of each ingredient, Small Batch Baking was actually written for this exact purpose. 

Whether we’re talking rosemary goat-cheese biscuits or chai-spiced snickerdoodles, this book will whip up a modest amount of servings, no new baking accessories necessary. 

Continuing on with our dessert extravaganza, Perfectly Simple Ice Cream is brought to you by veteran chefs of Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse restaurant, Anthony Tassinello and Mary Jo Thoresen. In it, you’ll find: 

• 100 recipes to try, whether recreated ice cream favorites from your favorite shop, or sherbert, granita, frozen yogurt recipes you’ve never heard of before (have you ever heard of London Fog or Vietnamese Coffee as ice cream flavors? Neither have I!)
• Tips and techniques: step-by-step guidance to achieving smooth, delicious desserts every time
• Topping ideas that go the extra mile

Changing gears, Crochet Cute Critters is exactly what it sounds like: crocheting cute critters! The book includes patterns for lots of colorful, plushy friends that can be given or displayed. Whether your mom is a crochet warrior or just starting out, this book has everything she needs: 

• Beginner-friendly patterns: all the patterns use a standard hook and common worsted weight yarn, so anyone can get started with ease
• Helpful reference pages: step-by-step rundowns of crucial crocheting skills accompanied by full-color pages of each pillowy critter make learning easy
• Buildable basics: every 10” animal has the same basic head and body pattern, so the techniques carry over from project to project

Growing a successful herb garden at home has never been so easy. Herb Gardening for Beginners is about more than simply growing the herbs though–it also teaches you how to harvest and use the herbs. 

Great for moms who don’t have much outdoor space for gardening–or even any outdoor space at all–step-by-step instructions and troubleshooting tips will have your garden growing in no time. Throughout the process, you’ll learn: 

• Intro to herb gardening: benefits and uses of each herb, different planting options, crucial gardening tools, and tips for success
• Herb profiles: detailed explanations of 40 common herbs, including seed information; mature plant size; light, water, and soil requirements; major uses of the herb; and safety considerations
• 80 different recipes: from sore throat remedies to cleaning supplies to soda bread, you’ll discover all sorts of practical applications of your herbs

Regretfully, crystals get a bad rep – but this book, Crystals for Beginners, separates the myths from the realities, and simply encourages mindfulness and healing. That’s what crystal use is all about, after all. 

For moms looking to balance their body, mind, and spirit, this book will teach them how crystals work and how to use them. 

Illustrated guides provide 50 detailed crystal profiles so mom can learn how to identify crystals, how to foster positive growth with specific crystal prescriptions and healing mantras, and which 10 she should consider to start her collection with. 

Some moms like to garden because they enjoy the connection with the earth and the hard work that gardening requires. But some also enjoy the poetic connection between flowers and the cultural history of our world. 

It sounds more convoluted than it is; The Complete Language of Flowers is an updated floriography including over 1,000 flower species. 

Each entry provides a visual depiction of the species, the species name, its characteristics, and historic meanings from mythology, medieval legends, folklore, and flower poetry. 

Symbolic flower meanings have fascinated people for centuries. Whether your goal is to arrange a meaningful wedding bouquet or to decode the meaning behind the yellow rose gifted to you by a friend, this is a telling book to reference. 

Delving back into the craft scene, this book is all about macramé. Though an age-old craft, macramé has seen multiple resurgences in its time, and now with the 70’s revival taking the world by storm, this book is a great place to start when looking to give your home that boho feel. 

Providing photos and diagrams to help you on your way, this book includes on-trend projects for both indoor and outdoor décor. It also features a macramé knot library, so you can begin with easier projects and move on to advanced ones as you pick up more skills. 

Level up your embroidery skills with fresh and contemporary motifs from Aimee Ray’s Doodle Stitching Embroidery Art. Make hoop-framed embroidery art, decorative keepsakes, pillows, patches, charms, and fabric scrapbooks that you’ll want to display in every corner of your home. 

Also featuring personalization techniques for letters and numbers, this book includes 20 doodle stitching embroidery art projects. With the sudden renaissance of embroidery art, you’ll want to create personalized projects that represent your most creative self. 

Calling all dog lovers! Alison J. Reid’s Stitch 50 Dogs provides a whole slew of easy patterns for adorable dog designs, which can be turned into brooches, bag charms, home accessories, or even scaled up to make life-size plushes. 

All you need is felt, needles and thread, brads for eyes, a little stuffing, and wool roving for extra fluff. 

The great thing about this book is that all it takes are some hand stitches, making it easily accessible for everyone. And if you’ve never done it before, the blanket stitch, running stitch, and basic embroidery stitches are explained and illustrated within the book. 

Step-by-step instructions and full-size templates for each distinctive breed make it paws-itively easy to get started no matter your sewing abilities.