Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

From time to time, buying books by mail order from a description fouls up. Such is the case here: I have to admit that if I had seen this book in a shop, pretty as the garments in it are, I would not have bought it. Probably, I am not the intended target, though from the description I thought I was. In fact the description of the clothes is reasonably accurate, but two vital pieces of information are withheld, firstly that the designer has an inexplicable obsession with making garments knitted from crochet cotton, and secondly, the sizes are all extremely small. Let's be blunt. The models in this book look about twenty and have no breasts. (One girl is so thin that the stockings she is modelling are hanging in bags around her knees; if she stood up, they would fall down.) I am forty-eight and have a 45 inch bust. Despite attempts to convince us that modern knitters are all groovy twenty-five year olds who knit in pubs, I strongly suspect that I am not atypical in size and age. Sour grapes? Call it that if you like, but while one can bellyache about the choice of models, the fact remains that none of the patterns in this book is sized larger than a 42 inch bust. It is extremely annoying to spend money on a book and find that that only a few accessories patterns are going to be useful to you. I don't blame the author for this, and I also acknowledge that a lot of the patterns she has designed would look stupid on a woman with my top-heavy figure. But I do think it is about time that efforts were made by publishers to put sizing information into the descriptions--after all, half the point of making things for yourself is that you can produce items that actually fit you. If I had been given that information, I would have marked the book down as unsuitable for me and moved on. Now for my other complaint. In order to achieve the lacy effect, a lot of the garments have been designed and knitted with fine crochet cotton. I once knitted a bag with crochet cotton, and found it quite unpleasant to knit with as it had no give or spring whatsoever. I cannot conceive of wanting to knit a whole skirt in crochet cotton, or how long it would take me to finish were I ever foolish enough to embark on such an endeavour. (I suspect it might just be ready for me on retirement.) I offer this information, because I think it likely that a lot of other knitters might have a similar reaction. If knitting with crochet cotton appeals to you as an idea, and you fall within the size range, then you are probably the right person to buy this book.