Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80788 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Review
Knit Today:Look out for this informative and comprehensive book. It is a valuable reference for any lover of crochet with a wide selection of stitch patterns and techniques. There are 36 linear stitch patterns and 19 in-the-round motifs that can be used for many different projects and ideas. The book presents them as morsels that can then be combined to create rugs and throws as a decorative reference that can inspire you again and again. The book then progresses to colour work where 30 squares are charted as cololurful patterns that can all be extended and worked in any shade you like. Carrying on further than many other crochet books, Renate then shows how to work another 36 patterns in Tunisian crochet and 30 ways with crochenit, a derivative of Tunisian crochet. As well as being an extensive collection of patterns for an avid crocheter, the book is also an excellent primer for anyone who is new to crochet. The basics of the technique are thoroughly and clearly explained in down to earth language and excellent diagrams and is an excellent source.

Customer Reviews

A good book except for one thing
Except for one little thing (see below), I really like this book. It consists of projects for five sampler rugs, each of which you make using many different crochet stitch patterns. The author, who has taught for many years, explains that learning all the stitches so you can make the rugs is an attainable and worthwhile goal.

There are two rugs based on classic stitches (one in squares and one in hexagons), one on Jacquard stitch (patterns in two or more colours), one on Tunisian crochet, and one on crochenit. These rugs use, respectively, 36, 19, 30, 36, and 30 different patterns - a total of 151 new stitch patterns to be learned. The difficulty level is marked "average to advanced" for two of the rugs, and "above average to advanced" for the remaining three. So this book makes no claim to being suitable for beginners.

Every stitch pattern is shown in a colour photo, with both written instructions and a chart. At the beginning of the book there are some introductory remarks about such things as reading patterns and using stitch markers. She also includes explanations of the basic stitches, with clear and helpful drawings. It is a pleasure to read thru this book and see how well-organized it is.

Now, I am only a beginning crocheter, so I don't feel ready to try any of the patterns at present. But you can still tell a lot about a crafts book just by looking thru it - for one thing, you can check to see if the written instructions match the chart. I have often found errors in knitting or crochet patterns just by reading them. So I don't feel that my opinion is completely unreliable even tho I haven't made any of the patterns.

(DRUM ROLL) Now what is it that I don't like? The publisher is Sally Milner, in Australia, where they use UK terminology to name the crochet stitches. I think it would be easier to read instructions in a foreign language than to convert from UK to US terminology - for example, double crochet (UK) means single crochet (US) - that is, 2 means 1 - and so on. I have read crochet books in UK terminology, and it makes my head swim. But in this book they decided to have it both ways, which in my opinion is even worse. Here is a fairly simple sentence, exactly as it appears in the book:

"1 ch, turn, dc (US sc) in first 4 dc (US sc), *puff st, dc (US sc) in next 3 dc (US sc), repeat from * to last dc (US sc), dc (US sc) in last dc (US sc) - 5 puff sts."

What was my conclusion? Well, the same author has just come out with another book, also published by Sally Milner, called Freeform Crochet and Beyond. I have decided that never in 100 years will I consider buying this book, unless maybe it comes out with an American publisher.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!


6:44 PM 2008-11-02