Customer Reviews

Crochet Your Way

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I consider myself an intermediate level crocheter and I really like a lot of the designs in this book. However, I made the "Learn to Crochet Afghan" and found A LOT of mistakes in the instructions. Even some of the basic stitch directions have typos. I'm hesitant to start another project for fear of having to start over due to pattern mistakes.

I have some experience with crocheting, and was looking for those ever-elusive sweater patterns. Some are a bit weird, but I tried the vest on pg. 168 and the pattern is wrong - I had to unravel and go back. I've seen other references to incorrect patterns, so - beware. The reference part is nice, though.

This is a great crochet book for many reasons. One reason is the wonderful photographs and the clear consise instructions that come with the projects. Another reason is because it shows crochet being fashionable and easy to make as opposed to being something "old fashioned" looking.

When my youngest neice asked for a crochet book as a gift, this is the book I picked to give her. It has good instructions for beginning crocheters (which she is) and has enough innovative patterns to keep her interested past the initial frustration of learning a new craft. This is a high compliment from me because I've been crocheting over 30 years and have seen many crochet books and I thought this one was the best for a young woman just starting to crochet. (I may have chosen the Lily Chin one, but it wasn't out at that time.)

I recommend this book highly to anybody who wants to expand their crochet skills. The projects are beautiful and instructions are clear. (No, I _didn't_ see the "mistake" on page 156. I'm wondering if the other reviewer may have misread the instructions.) If you know a crocheter and he or she doesn't have this book, give them this book at the next gift giving opportunity. If you crochet, you should get this book and enjoy it.

My sister is left-handed and I wanted her to learn crochet (My addiction:-).
She's very happy with the book and details. I found that the stitches that are offered are very detailed and creative.

This book is divided into 3 sections. The first section covers technique, including instructions for left-handers as well as covering the symbol equivalents for each pattern stitch. At first I thought all the technical info was of great value but after having this book for a while now, I have not found it to be the best of references for everytime I had a technical question, I could not find the answers I was looking for.

The second section is an afghan project achieved by practising the techinques from the first section to make afghan squares which will be joined once completed. Though the concept is good, I personally do not like the look of this afghan and would have preferred it to be made up of smaller squares. I would have liked the authors to include information on the number of stitches required for each pattern stitch such as is done in the Harmony Guide pattern stitch books, or Lily Chin's Mosaic Afghan book. That way, I could actually get some good use when referencing the pattern stitches should I want to adapt a WIM (work in mind).

The third section takes all the stitches learned in the sampler afghan a step further by implementing them into various projects. A few of the projects are gorgeous but many, if not most of the patterns are outdated. I have to agree with one of the other reviewers that you will prefer Melissa Leapman's sweater designs. Something I also did not like about the pattern section is that many patterns did not use easy to find yarns and the authors did not simplify the task of finding a replacment yarn as the yarn weights were not specified.

I went out and bought this book because of its outstanding reviews but after having accumulated a lot of different crochet books, this one I could have done without.

The first part of this book is wonderful for anyone starting on crochet for the first time. It's got terrific and throrough visual instructions for dozens of different stitch variations. So I highly recommend it to a beginner looking for a place to start.

Unfortunately, I found all the pattern ideas to not match my taste. I am very turned off by their choice of yarns and color combinations in nearly every project. A large portion of the book is devoted to a "sampler afghan" where each square focuses on a different stitch or color pattern. This a great idea in principle, but the color combinations they used seemed rather gross to me, and I haven't been able to visualize a set of colors or yarns that might look better.

There are a number of adult sweater and shawl ideas - the most I've seen in any book. Again, the colors turned me off. (Remind me of well-meaning, ugly gifts from Grandma.) And I found many of the designs seemed rather bulky looking. I prefer lighter-weight creations using more intricate patterns.

So, I realize this is all a matter of taste. Looking through this book, it is obvious the authors are very creative and taking crochet in innovative directions. I think as I become more advanced in my crochet skills and design my own projects, I may use some of their design ideas in my own designs. However, I would have appreciated this book much more if the authors were more into my taste in colors.

This book is terrific, it teaches you many new stitches and patterns, in applications you can use, for instance, a gorgeous sampler afghan, then the books utilizes the stitches in sweaters, vests, etc. later in the book.

I'm trying to teach myself to crochet -- through books, as I know no one who can teach me. This wasn't, for me, a book that helped me learn to crochet. Beginners might want to try another book, although I'm sure this is a great book if you already know something about crochet. It has beautiful patterns.

This book is more of a stitch library than a reference manual for crochet. This is definitely not a beginner's book. I haven't completed any of the projects yet, but I think it will be essential to complete the afghan before you can really work any of the sweater patterns, You will need to get experience with the different stitches. Great book for a crocheter's library, but I prefer the sweater patterns in "Crochet With Style" by Melissa Leapman.

I had never crocheted before I bought this book. While this is overall a great reference book for beginners, (...) this is not for the person who's never picked up a hook before. I found the basic beginner instructions difficult to figure out and lacking in detail and finally ended up learning from an website tutorial that had more detailed diagrams.

However, once I'd figured out the basics, this book proved invaluable. I've tried a few of the patterns in the book (the sweaters are just not my style), but mostly I use it as a reference guide when trying to come up with my own projects. It's got more types of stitches and patterns than any of the other books I found.