49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A nice little book., June 10, 2006
This review is from: 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns: Exciting Patterns to Knit & Crochet for Afghans, Blankets & Throws (Paperback)
First let me say that I have no idea why I decided to purchase this book. I almost never make afghans! That said, I am not sorry to have done so.
After looking through the book, the reader will realize that the book is actually much more than its title suggests. For one thing, it isn't simply an "afghan pattern book." It's more in the nature of a stitch dictionary with suggestive colors and textures of yarn. Designs are in both knitting and crochet, so the volume is useful for the practitioners of both crafts. The table of contents illustrates all of the designs in thumbnail pictures, allowing the book's user to compare and select among several possible designs.
Like many stitch dictionaries this book also displays close-ups of finished fabric squares. This makes the pattern clearer and the overall effect of the finished product more evident.
The author, Jan Eaton, uses standard written instructions rather than graphed ones. Even though I am a predominantly "visual" learner, I find the graphs take a lot of getting used to. I personally prefer the written pattern, because it's what I've used for most of my projects over the years. The younger knitting or crocheting audience, however, may be more used to the graphs and so find verbal instructions slow them down.
While many of the stitches seem mere variants of one another in different colors and textures, this makes more obvious just how individual and stunning the character of completed work can be by careful choice of colors and yarn textures. For the beginner, this might be a good first introduction to composition, color scheme and texture.
Some of the patterns are very simple ones that show the geometry of ripple patterns. These would certainly be easy for any beginner. Others are by way of lace patterns, requiring a little more advanced (though not prohibitively so) understanding of knitting and crochet, something to challenge both beginner and average worker. None of the patterns looked to me as though they would be difficult for the most advanced worker. I suspect that for the latter, however, the color, texture, and yarn ideas will provide inspiration.
A nice little book.
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62 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Knitters Beware!, January 28, 2007
This review is from: 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns: Exciting Patterns to Knit & Crochet for Afghans, Blankets & Throws (Paperback)
I realize that making notations correctly to reproduce a pattern is a tedious and time consuming task -- and I'd much rather pay other people (knitting book authors) to do it for me so I can spend my time on actual knitting.
So when someone writes and publishes a book full of beautiful patterns and charges you for it -- you'd expect that they'd actually done the meticulous and tedious work. Not so in this book.
I picked a pattern at random (the photos are beautiful!) and started knitting -- only to get into the 4th repition before realizing that no amount of blocking or pressing was going to give me a happy result -- and that the pattern was INCORRECT! In a 10-row pattern, rows 7 and 9 were transposed with rows 8 & 10!!! Simply knitting 5,6,8,7,10,9 would have produced the correct pattern, but the way it was written, it only produced a mess.
It's been a long time since knitting was as popular as it is now, and publishers are rushing to press with dozens of new books every year -- and not bothering to hire a knitter to edit the books that go out the door and onto the shelves. (not unlike cookbook authors/publishers who publish books of 1001 southwest soups -- most of which have never been tasted by man nor beast.)
Well, this is one of those books, so watch yourself if you try to knit from it. You're cooking from recipes that call for 1/2c of salt per quart rather than 1/2t.
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't waste your money, March 7, 2007
This review is from: 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns: Exciting Patterns to Knit & Crochet for Afghans, Blankets & Throws (Paperback)
This book is full of mitakes. I have tried about 20 patterns so far and all but one has had mistakes. There is no eratta online nor does the publishers website have anyway to contact them. Not to mention there are not 200 patterns, but the same patterns are done in different color yarns. This is a complete waste of money.
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