Crocheting for Dummies

This is the second one I’ve bought, this one for my niece. She suddenly wants to learn and I live 1600 miles away from her. This book should answer all her questions and we can use cell phones for questions.

I have been crocheting for almost a year, but I never felt I learned how to do it right, and after reading this book I found out I wasn't! But, I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong, and was able to fix it! They give straightforward instructions and illustrations to help! I will definatley recomend this to friends.

Excellent book. Anyone wanting to learn to crochet will truly enjoy this book. It has every stitch you would want to learn and it does the description in a way that you can't help but learn it. Good luck to anyone that is just starting to crochet or even those that have been crocheting and want to learn a new stitch. This is a must for your stitching library.

I knew a few basics of crocheting before I bought this book, but needed help to go further. This book was that help I needed! It shows every stitch and step in great detail with diagrams to help. Whereas, it seems like most other "how to crochet" books give very little detail. They seem to assume that people should already know the basics when a newbie does not. This book thankfully does not assume that, and goes into even the minor details. It also goes into some of the more advanced techniques, including tunisian crochet. I really recommend this book for all crocheters. Everyone could probably learn something new from it. It does have some projects in it, although I have not tried any of them. Therefore, I can't really comment on the projects. They seem pretty good from looking, but I don't think most buyers would get this book as a pattern book. It is more of an instructional book.

Crocheting for Dummies by Karen Manthey & Susan Brittain is a wonderfully thorough and very informative book for anyone wanting to learn to crochet and or wanting to freshen up their skills. The book reads like a storybook in paragraph form. Everything is explained in great detail from choosing yarns and hooks, to how to work a large array of crochet stitches, to how to read a pattern, right down to how to care for ones crocheted items. The stitch drawings are clear and expertly done making learning new stitches so much easier. The book has both a contents page and an index for easy referral. I especially liked the fact that an index was included. So many crochet books do not include this. The index makes it very easy to find information on a particular topic quickly. The recommendations for people just learning to crochet are fantastic. This book wasn't out when I learned to crochet and I learned the hard way about many of the pit falls this book helps one to avoid. For instance they recommend one start out with a size H-8 crochet hook and a light colored worsted weight yarn. I learned with a B-1 hook and a fingering weight yarn. After 2 whole days of crocheting it was 36" long and 1.5" tall. I was trying to make a baby blanket for my doll (which never got made). The book contains humor, not just in the cartoons but in the instructions as well which makes for very entertaining reading while one learns a new craft. I always appreciate having a teacher with a sense of humor! A good sampling of designs is included so that one can try out their skills. These include sweaters, an afghan, doilies, hot pads, pillow, scarves, floral motifs, and bandanas. I am a crochet designer and I read the book cover to cover like a storybook while on vacation this past week. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a few things as well. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the art of crochet.