Golden Hands Crochet Pattern Book

I love this book. It has an orange cover and patterns from 1972, it is once again "au courant.'

So many times when I purchase a recently published crochet book, I am purchasing it for one or only a handful of patterns. I am more than a bit put off when I lay out close to thirty dollars (sometimes more) to get a few error-riddled patterns.

There are lots of reasons to really enjoy this book. For one, the pattern directions are reasonably correct. By that, I mean that nothing I've attempted to make failed as a result of the directions.

For another, there are patterns for everyone in the book, men, women, children, household goods. There are some particularly fetching designs for little girls, including a darling coat and hat done in half show more double crochet. The selection for boys is, as usual, minimal. For women, there are some blast-from-the-past crochet suits done in pastels, along with a sweater in modular pieces with a hat made from matching modules that could easily have an updated look just by using new materials.

The patterns for men include the obligatory hat, vest and sweater. These designs from 1972 aren't any worse than what is currently available, while the patterns for household decoration that are better than average.

In particular, there is one afghan that I have made at least three versions of, never the same way twice, and never quite the way it looks in the book. That said, I bought the book for this particular pattern, because I wanted my life to be where that afghan was.

There is also good instruction on making crocheted rugs from fabric strips as well as a "flowered wall panel" that is delightful and fun, if not elegant.

There is a lot of good design in this book and a number of interesting ideas about how to incorporate different crochet elements into a whole garment/piece. There was almost nothing in the book I didn't like and if you have a little girl for whom you crochet, there are a lot of good patterns to choose from. show less

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