A Critic's Review on Crochet Books

Happy Friday! It's rainy and a tad chilly here in GA at the present. They say it's going to clear this afternoon and be a nice weekend. I'm hoping so. 

The Bradford Pears aren't as bloomed as I thought they would be so I haven't gotten any pics of them. But I do have some stuff to show you.

With my income tax refund I was able to pay off 3 bills so I thought I would be kind to myself. I had ordered a bunch of thread, that I b*^%(ed about in a previous post because they smushed some rolls with their horrible packing skills. 

I also ordered 7 crochet books from Amazon. Or what I thought was 7 crochet books. It turns out that in my greedy haste to get them ordered and in my hot little hands I ordered one that is mostly knit except for 3 patterns. I was sooo bummed. But then I figured I can just give it to my older sister who does knit, for a birthday, anniversary or just anytime present.

I decided to do a review and I hope I don't get in trouble here showing you parts of the books. I tried not to show too much in the way of info in the books. But as a consumer and user of said books it can work to the publishers/writers advantage in a few of them. There is one I was so totally disappointed in. You'll see why.  So without further ado, here is what I spent my hard earned money on:

Lovely huh? I thought so too! So much crochet knowledge contained in these books.

This book was my disappointment. Yes it's filled with many motifs and blocks but you know what? See the cover how they are all light brown with the green, brown, blue and red backgrounds? THAT should have been my sign. The WHOLE book is like that!! You can't see much of the stitch detail in any of the pics of the patterns.  If I had known this book was like this I wouldn't have spent my money on it. Seriously.  I'm sorry, but it was just a blah book. I could have spent my money on one of the other books (or two) in my wish list on Amazon and been happier. Following is a couple of pages inside the book. The most expensive of all of my books - $17.29. 

Next up is my sister's future gift, the knit book. I guess I should have opened my eyes better and seen the knitting needles on the front of the book. But in my defense I did a search on crochet, not knit. Oh well, no biggy. There are three crochet patterns and I'll copy them before I send the book to my sister. It has some very lovely patterns in there, I just can't knit. I have 2 left hands when it comes to knitting.

Would you love to knit this shawl?? Amazon's got the book....just sayin.  :o)    $11.55

Next up is the Baskets and Bowls. I was a little disappointed in this one too. There's not much in it. Though I will probably crochet all of the patterns in the book, I expected more. Sorry......

Here is the contents of the book. $7.95......You be the judge.

This next one is one of my favorites of all 7 (there are 3 favs). What a classy, beautiful book in my opinion. I have so many pages marked it's not funny. I love this book. Well worth $14.01......to me anyways. I would describe this book as exquisite. I think this is my most favorite of all of them.

This is taken out of Crochet Master Class. Isn't that precious??

This book is ok. It was the cheapest one of the bunch. $6.07. At least the pics are in color.

I'll probably use quite a few patterns out of here.

This one is one of my favs too. It comes in at $14.32.

This cowl is pretty isn't it?

And last but not least is the Harmony Guides Stitch Motifs. This is my second Harmony Guides book and in my opinion it's well written, has great colors and is well worth the $15.61 I paid for it.

A page out of the Stitch Motifs:

Grand total for all of my books was $86.80. I got free shipping because I had over $25 worth of merchandise.  So all in all I didn't do too bad. I got a lot of knowledge and lots of patterns that I will be using in my crochet. 
See what happens when you're generous and kind to yourself? :o) I think I deserve it because I worked hard all year long to get that money back AND I paid 3 bills off. Not too shabby.

Here's hoping your weekend is one you can't hardly stand because it's just too cool (not as in cold cool but too fun/good cool)! My butt is going to be sitting on the porch enjoying the nice spring weather with my nose stuck in one of these books and hook and yarn/thread in my hands.  How did you know that??? LOL
TTFN
Kat
xoxox