Customer Reviews

Donna Kooler's Crocheted Afghans

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

 

 

Was excited to see this book and was impressed with many of the designs. However, when I actually started a project that I really wanted to make, I found serious errors in the instructions. The instructions had an incorrect number of base chain stitches, incorrect stitches cited in the pattern, and a special stitch that was not referenced in the instruction but was crucial to the pattern. I have not tried the other patterns but was forced to rewrite the instructions to complete this one. I can only hope the others were better edited.

This book has a good number of great afghans I plan to make. There are many pattern "creators" in this book (they are not all patterns by Donna Kooler) which makes for a great variation of styles and stitches. Up until now I have only made afghans from the Leisure Arts books, and this one has some refreshing new stitches and pattern ideas (including the cover item). I was anxious to start one from this book simply for the challenge! It does have different abbreviations than Leisure Arts uses, which threw me off a little at first, but are easy to adjust to. Baby afghans included.

I LOVE to look at this book. There are soooo many of the afghans that I want to make but as I started on one, I noticed there were omissions, namely what hook size to use on specific pieces (three were three hook sizes called for in material list). I am e-mailing author and hope to get an answer, but this is a major book and it probably should have been edited better. I also really liked that in the back they list the brand of yarn and specific color numbers authors used in their model pieces. I would have given it five stars just for the beautiful pictures and new ideas, but with the mistakes, just can't. Like the other reviewer, as I make more out of this book, hope I don't find more major erros.

Fortunately, I picked this book out at the library instead of buying it first because like another reviewer mentioned, it has some serious instructional errors. The pattern I checked-the book out for is so confusing, I wasn't even close to be able to figure out how to adjust for the missing instructions. I've had problems with Vanna White books but they're usually small things you can easily figure out but this one was too tough a cookie for me and I have been crocheting for over 35 years and know how to read patterns well.

There are some beautiful patterns in here, some of the nicest "basket weave" I've seen, but I wouldn't recommend buying this book unless an addendum of corrections is available.

Nice book, but there is really only one pattern in the book that resembles the pattern on the cover. Was hoping for more similar items. Most of the patterns are actually by other people, not Donna Kooler.

As usual, Donna Kooler's books are a great resource for any yarn or thread hobbyist. I adore her Encyclopedia of Crochet and find that her diagramed (or charted) patterns much easier for me to follow than written patterns. I was really hoping for the same type of patterns in this book. While the afghans are beautiful and will hopefully inspire me to create some of my own patterns, I was really looking forward to diagrams.

Great patterns for blankets!!! A lot of types: babies, fir the home... Hardly recommend this book