40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Has pros and cons.............., August 29, 2008
This review is from: Tiny Yarn Animals: Amigurumi Friends to Make and Enjoy (Mass Market Paperback)
I bought this book because I LOVE amigurumi, I have just about every English crochet amigurumi book, and several Japanese amigurumi books.
Some pros:
1. Large full color photographs for each project.
2. The book is about the size of a magazine, so each pattern fits on 1-2 pages--I like that.
3. At the end of the book the author lets you know what yarn is used for each project.
4. The author uses different eyes for the projects--some are embroidered, some are safety eyes---gives you inspiration for using different types of eyes.
5. There are some patterns that are pretty unique---such as the lemur, koala bear, hippo, fish, fox and bumblebee. You do not see patterns for these all over the place like you do bears, puppies, owls, etc.......
6. There is a gauge given for each pattern, which is nice. That is not common in amigurumi books, and I like having a gauge for each pattern.
7. Very reasonably priced.
8. Lastly, this might sound odd, but I like that the author did not name the patterns with human names. The hippo pattern is simply called "Hippo", not "Jenny the Hippo" (or whatever...)...for me it is harder to really personalize or make an amigurumi project when it already has a name. I like when patterns are just called "Elephant" not "Elizabeth Elephant".
Okay the cons.....
1. The patterns could be written a little better. For example, typically in a crochet pattern whenever there is a round (or row) where there is an increase or decrease there is a stitch count given for that round (or row). This book does not have any stitch counts, so you never know how many stitches you should have per round. While this is not a problem to easily figure out how many stitches you should have while on Round 3, by the time you are on Round 18 after increasing and decreasing you really do not know how many stitches you should have.
2. I wish there were charts for the patterns--it would at least make up for the lack of stitch counts.
3. I have found some of the results to be quite awkward--especially the mouse. It seems that much of the shaping for some of the animals is accomplished not by the crochet stitches themselves, but by the stuffing.
All in all I will keep this book for my Amigurumi Library, but if you are a beginner I would definitely suggest something that has a bit more logical and predictable shaping, and stitch counts such as Ana Paula Rimoli's "Amigurumi World". But, if you like me are just crazy for Amigurumi, then you will have to have this book too.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cute patterns, confusing instructions, October 20, 2008
This review is from: Tiny Yarn Animals: Amigurumi Friends to Make and Enjoy (Mass Market Paperback)
I bought this book because it has some very cute, unique patterns that I hadn't seen anywhere else (koala, lemur). It's a very nice book to look at, with its full color photographs of all the different creations. However, the lack of certain instructions makes it difficult for an amigurumi-novice.
For example, there are almost no instructions on how to assemble the animals once you've made the pieces. I had to resort to online tutorials (crochetme.com) to find this information. I think the author should have devoted at least one page to assembly and how to sew the pieces together, with photos to illustrate. The book has a great section on basic crochet stitches, with big, clear photos, so it seemed silly that in an amigurumi book, there wasn't a similar page for animal assembly.
As others have stated, the patterns rely a lot on how they are stuffed to make the shapes as pictured. Also, I really only found about half of the patterns appealing.
Consensus-
Pros: Cute, unique patterns, nice photos, easy to read
Cons: Little to no instruction on assembly or stitching pieces together; for some of the animals, you can find better patterns online
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Needs improvement, July 6, 2009
This review is from: Tiny Yarn Animals: Amigurumi Friends to Make and Enjoy (Mass Market Paperback)
The instructions in this book need to be reviewed. They are not detailed enough. For example, on one project the instructions are to refer to the image to see how to attach a tail. I did not find the image they were talking about, there was no image that provided that information. Also, the steps don't have the total number of stitches at the end, so it's sometimes difficult to track your progress. I think this book is not as easy for beginners to understand as some other amigurumi books.
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