Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #258965 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781579906719
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Valerie Shrader has been sewing for decades and has a lifelong appreciation of textiles and related crafts. She is also a writer and photographer, and spent several years making jewelry, specializing in bead and wire designs.

Customer Reviews

Several errors/misprints...
The pictures of the projects in this book are wonderful; that's what prompted me to attempt to make several of them. I was well on my way into the first one when I noticed that the instructions provided did not yield the results I expected; in fact, the instructions for an entire row were omitted!

Since I am an experience crocheter, I was able to figure out how to fix it and continue on. However, later in the same project, I encountered more discrepancies. I figured out how to correct the problems and was able to finish the project.

Had this happened on only one project, I would not be writing this review. The sad part is that every one of the four projects I attempted (I only finished the first one) contained errors in the instructions. After encountering the first error, I abandoned the projects.

I agree with an earlier reviewer who mentioned that this book was definitely not for beginners. Whoever edited this book did a very poor job, in my opinion...

IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH CREATIVITY TO WIN A BLUE RIBBON
I haven't made any of the afghans in this book yet, but I've read through most of the patterns pretty thouroughly, and I'm an experienced crocheter, so I think I can review it without having actually made an afghan from it.

First off, it's a very pretty book - heavy stock paper, afghans photographed very nicely, lots of State Fair pictures sprinkled throughout the pattern section. The first 21 pages of the book is a historical write-up of State Fairs in general. I only bought the book for the afghan patterns, and I don't have much interest in State Fairs, so I haven't read that section. Other reviewers have said it's nice, so I'll take their word for it.

So.... on to the patterns themselves. In a very generous count, there are 45 patterns in the book. But actually, it's less than that because some patterns are repeated. For instance, on pages 48-49 we have the South Carolina blue ribbon winner, a baby-blue afghan titled "Sweet Hearts". Then the next afghan on pages 50-51 is the Florida winner, a peach-colored version of the exact same afghan, again titled "Sweet Hearts". Here's the author's comment at the top of page 50, above the verbatim repeat of the instructions from the previous afghan - "Some designs are so wonderful that they deserve more than one blue ribbon". Maybe the design deserves more than one blue ribbon, but it doesn't deserve to be shown twice in the same pattern book with a repeat of the instructions. Another example is pages 58-59, which shows the Arkansas winner "Baby ABC's Afghan", followed pages 60-61, the South Carolina winner of the exact same pattern. Different colors again, but the exact instructions printed/reprinted for each one.

While there are some interesting designs in the book, there are also a number of very basic afghans - several very similar versions of granny squares, several versions of just the standard ripple stitch. There must not have been a lot of competition in Nebraska, because the blue ribbon winner was a simple, single crochet ripple stitch, all in one color. And this simplest of simple afghans is labeled "Original Design", as if this were a brand new thing that someone just thought up. I'm sure it was made really well, but it hardly qualifies as "Original".

Which brings me to another disappointment - There are a few afghans labeled "Original Design" (some that deserve it, some that don't), but most of the patterns are from previously published sources, and are labeled "Pattern courtesy of ....." (fill in the blank with Coats&Clark, Leisure Arts, Annie's Attic, etc.), which means that if you have a good collection of afghan patterns already, you won't see much in this book that's new. I'll admit that I have a LOT of afghan books, more than what we might call "normal people", so maybe this bothers me more than it would others.

I suppose this has to do with copyright issues, but the "courtesy of" patterns are printed exactly as they were originally published, with no alterations for how the pictured afghan was actually made. At the end of the pattern, there might be something like this from p.79 - "She used an original edging rather than the fringe called for in the instructions" - but there aren't any instructions for the edging she actually used. Or this from p. 84 - "She altered some of the cross-stitch blocks" - but no charts for the designs in the picture.

So overall, if you're looking for a beautifully designed book as a gift for someone, or if you don't already have a collection of afghan patterns, this might be a good choice for you. But if you're looking for something new and interesting, you won't find much of it here.

experts only
This is a beautifully done book. BUT the directions are not clear at all. Unless you are very experienced in crochet I would recommend another book. All the blankets showcased here are amazing but almost impossible to duplicate with the information they give you in this book.