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There are thirty-five different
flowers in this book to crochet; all ideal for adorning garments,
furnishings, cards and anything else you can think of. The
best part is that this is also a wonderful way of learning
to crochet as the subtitle contains the magic words ”step
by step“ and ”beginners“. A lot of beginner
books contain projects which are a bit large and daunting,
also that have one very specific use. These wee flowers make
up fast and use the basic stitches to great effect, as well
as using up oddments of yarn and being a very enjoyable way
of doing a lot with a little. They even have the added benefit
of not looking very easy to make!
I have seen a large number of books on how to crochet over
the years, but this one without a doubt has the best staged
photographs I have yet to see. They manage to be quite small
and numerous, while combining the winning features of colored
yarn and a strongly contrasting hook. No interim stages have
been omitted and they truly are foolproof. You can learn all
the basics here, including reading charts and getting to grips
with all those abbreviations. Patterns include a photograph
of the finished item plus staged photographs showing how to
do all the stages. These are also all easy to see and follow,
not arranged strictly in order of difficulty but roughly.
There is also a handy double page spread showing thumbnails
of all the flowers. Choose from plenty of garden favorites
such as lilies, roses, crocus, gerberas, chrysanthemums, tulips,
daisies, etc., as well as various leaves. At the back is a
short section of projects where you can make a lacy summer
stole, placemat, decorated pillow cover, tote bag and jewelry.
There is a resources page with links to various sites not
only in the author’s native Canada, but in several other
countries, a nice touch. The only alloy in all this is the
author’s choice of a rather non-standard crochet hook
size of 3.25mm, but at least this is used in all the projects
so you can get by with just this one hook and plenty of 4-ply
yarn. This is one for the keeper shelf and possibly the best
beginner book on crochet I have seen - do not miss.
If you cannot find a good range of crochet materials locally
try www.searchpress.com
for a list of suppliers.
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