Book Reviews

The first book I selected yesterday was Crochet Basics: All you need to Know to get Hooked on Crochet by Jan Eaton, here's the information at Amazon "Crochet Basics"
I've been crocheting for 40 years, I know the basics, and I'm definitely already hooked. So why buy this book? This is a great reference, it has charts of yarn types & weights; equipment used; parts of the hook; American/European stitch names; and a chart of hooks with American letters, UK numbers and metric #s; international symbols; finishing techniques such as edgings, joining, and blocking. All the stitch directions are well written, and have plenty of large photos that shows the stitches very clearly. This is a book that I can refer students too for all types of basic information. For my personal, more advanced needs, the motif section has some very nice motifs including a "cathedral triange", a "Spanish Lace" square, and "picot octagon". Great motifs that you can use to create your own design in place mat, shawl, scarf, aghan, etc. There are lots of edges, borders, and lace stitches. Then each section has a complete project, these include towel edgings, pillow, purse, scarf, sweater, afghan. A great bargain at less than $20.

The second book I purchased is a different type - projects. It's called 24-Hour Crochet Projects by Rita Weiss. "24-Hour Crochet Projects"
The book is set up with 2 pages of beautiful, color pictures of each project at the beginning, the designer's name is prominently displayed with each project, and a note on what page to find the pattern. Following the 45 pages of projects, comes a section with the patterns. More photos, a list of sizes, materials needed, and the approximate time to complete the project, along with the instructions to make the item. I forsee making the Little Doilies, time: about an hour; and the baby sweater and bonnet, time: about 8 hours; and definitely the Must Have Blouse, time: about 14 hours. This simple top looks like I could convert it to Tunisian with no problem. Oh, the hats, purses, scarf, hipscarf in tape yarn, a shawl in Glitterspun; I've got gift ideas, too.