Christmas Crochet for Hearth, Home & Tree: Stockings, Ornaments, Garlands, and More

This book takes on a pretty impressive task—it purports to be all things Christmas to all crocheters. There are projects in various weights of thread and yarn, from tiny ornaments to a tree skirt and long beaded garland to stockings ready to be filled with goodies. Some projects use only basic stitches, others include more complex patterns and methods such as Tunisian crochet.

I tested the pattern for one of the smaller, but yet complicated projects—a small bird made mostly of single crochets that also included shaping and piecing together several pieces. Beyond one moment where I tried to verify my work on the symbol chart (forgetting that, as a lefty, I needed to read the chart backwards), I found the instructions simple to follow. My bluebird is just what I wanted. I suspect that the other patterns will be similarly well written.

There are many things I like about this book: both written and charted instructions for every project; encouragement to try different colors and yarns; a relaxed attitude about the suggested gauge. However, there are a couple of things promised in the introduction that do not appear in the rest of the text (easy patterns marked easy for beginners and instructions for lefties printed in brackets). Neither is particularly necessary, but the promise without realization is a disturbing discontinuity in a book that I depend on for exacting accuracy.