Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The "curls" (scarves, shawlettes, etc.) in this book are simply gorgeous. I'd love to own any and all of them - which is, of course, why I bought the book. Having knitted several similar crescent shaped scarves from Ravelry patterns, I thought I could tackle Curls with no problem. Based on the photos of the curls, I pre-ordered the book without being able to preview the contents to see how the instructions were written and laid out. Had I been able to view a "Look Inside This Book" I wouldn't have ordered it. For me, it was an enormous disappointment that every single pattern in the book is presented with charts only. I hate charts. I realize charts are gaining in popularity, but I usually find authors who use charts will also include written instructions. Not here. The bare-bones written instructions tell you how many stitches to cast on; the weight of the specific yarn used in the photo (but not the suggested needle size to get gauge); and, maybe a sentence or two of general instruction like "odd rows are wrong side rows, even rows are right side rows." It may have to do with what kind of learner I am. I can follow along like a champ if a pattern spells out the instructions - (K1, YO, K2TOG) and I'm all over it. But graph paper with squiggles, even with a key, is worthless to me. I loathe endlessly looking for position with the axis numbers, checking the squiggle, and cross referencing the squiggle with the key before I can knit a stitch. I find charts extremely vague because each square doesn't necessarily correspond to a single stitch, and the repeats are easy to miss when they are only indicated by slightly heavier outlines on the graph lines. Every pattern includes a weird diagram of unlabeled color blocks representing the basic shape of the curl. Basically all curls are asymmetric wedges; repeating some sections of the pattern blocks makes a bigger curl. The key to these diagrams is in the front of the book in a section called "Anatomy of a Curl." Explaining this once at the beginning of the book would have been sufficient. Even if you don't share my apparent cognitive block and hatred of charts, be aware that the book format is somewhat smaller than most pattern books, which may also make the charts difficult to see. To sum up, the finished objects are beautiful. If you enjoy working from charts with minimal directions, then you'll probably enjoy this book. I'm not an intuitive enough knitter to enjoy (or even want to bother with) working from charts, so I'll probably never look at this book again.