I was delighted with the Bead-a-day calendar last year, so thought I'd give crochet a whirl. Two to three days printed on top of the pages does NOT make this a calendar. There is no miniature Month-at-a-glance, which makes any kind of day planning impossible, and the multiple days per page defeats the "today is <date>" reminder one would expect from a daily calendar. Already, this "calendar" is shaping up to be a waste of desk space. I learned how to crochet from my grandmother; as such, I never learned how to use a pattern. The bead-a-day had some lovely introductory "how to" instructions for various stitches, which I had naively assumed this would as well. Other than an abbreviation guide, there is no instruction about how to do the stitch they are describing, which makes this useless for the interested beginner. Knowing that "Tss" means "Tunisian simple stitch" does not help me actually USE the Tunisian simple stitch, whatever that may be. If I was an advanced user familiar with crochet patterns already, I would be disappointed with the actual patterns here. They seem very standard fare--interesting enough for someone trying to learn the basics, but not for someone who already knows what they're doing. Instead of a calendar or a beginner's learning guide, this is an expensive compilation of castoff patterns and a waste of money. Get a nice book of patterns instead.
