Customer Reviews

Crochet Style: Chic and Sexy Accessories

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Finally another cute crochet book....to join Happy Hooker and Fabulous and Flirty Crochet.... my favourite crochet books so far. This one is more like FFC in that there are no cushions or toys etc etc.... it's accessories and items of clothing. The patterns are a mix of simple to less simple, and include a cute jacket, an adorable short sleeved bolero jacket, the waistcoat on the front, and various bags, scarves, hats, jewellery... I want to make most of them. Nothing starchy here. Another nice point - patterns take you step by step, so if you, like me, are somewhat of a newbie, that's a big plus. I have been crocheting seriously (as opposed to single crochet edges for knitting) for a few months now, but am tackling intermediate crochet patterns. I don't quite have the guts to tackle something from the coolest book of all - Teva Durham's - but I will.... anyway, this book is very helpful for people at my stage. If you are at a higher level, it may irritate you that half the book is made up of instructions - I can't stand it any longe rin kn itting books! But these are very well done ones - large sized photos of real hands doing real crochet. I like having this - great reference!

My one very minor gripe, which isn't enough for me to remove a star, is that the yarn used in the patterns is not described in generic terms. By which I mean that I have no idea whether the astrakhan used for the jacket is sportweight, aran, whatever. As any crocheter knows, the crochet hook size given is not much of a help, as one tends to use a larger size hook than one would a knittng needle. Anyway, it's quite minor, because all you have to do is search the net and find out what the yarn is. But I'm lazy....

Recommended...

The quality of the book is great it is free standing and the pages dont close when doing patterns. The patterns are okay but I thought they would be more exciting by looking at the cover. The yarns are expensive or not within my budget of yarn to just go out and buy. Someone who loves crocheting and buying expensive yarn may love this book.

Shannon Okey, Crochet Style (Creative Homeowner, 2006)

Shannon Okey is a friend of mine, and I have to say that it pains me to give any book she writes a review that is in the least critical. I will rush to add that what I am critical of here has nothing to do with Okey's writing or the designs and patterns found here, which are as energetic and fun as ever (as well as cheesy, in that retro sort of way, on occasion), but the design of the book itself. It's done as a kind of vertical flip-book, designed to stay open without you having to hold it that way, for obvious reasons. Problem is, someone couldn't figure out whether the reader should turn the book when turning the pages (it does come with an expander to hold it up in a triangle) or not, so sometimes a two-page spread has one page facing one way and one page facing the other, while at other times the two pages face the same way. While I preferred the latter layout a great deal, I would have at least been satisfied with a bit of consistency. Still, if you're looking for some interesting new ideas for what to do with all that yarn, pick this up. ***

There are some cute patterns in this book, however, the yarn is so expensive it will make your hair turn grey. They don't give a yarn exchange which would be very useful. The patterns are not that easy to understand and there are not many that I would bother doing.