Someone who has never crocheted before can pick up this book and begin to understand all the aspects of this art. Maggie Righetti doesn't just teach you how to do crochet stitches; she's thought of all the little details that a beginner might wonder about and put all the answers together in a format that makes it easy to find the part you're looking for.

Experienced crocheters can also advance their skills and find useful tips and hints throughout this book.

Maggie has a light writing style that makes for enjoyable reading as she teaches you about the right hook for your project, joining yarn in the middle of a piece, what to do when you make a mistake, ways to increase and decrease, techniques, stitches and much more. Each diagram for making basic stitches shows both hands so you can see how to hold your hands, the way to hold the hook, where the yarn wraps around your fingers and what the stitch-in-progress should look like.

Maggie has included some very nice patterns for squares made using different stitches, edgings, flower motifs, ladies pullover, baby sweater, afghan. There's a diagram for joining Irish Rose Crochet Motifs into a blouse and suggestions for making a Spiral Pinwheel Hexagon Motif into different items.

Maggie Righetti has written several other needlecraft books and is an internationally recognized authority on knitting and crochet.

This is a sourcebook that crocheters of all skill levels can find to be a valuable addition to their needlecraft library.

--Sandi Marshall