100 Snowflakes to Crochet: Make Your Own Snowdrift---to Give or to Keep (Knit & Crochet) Paperback – September 4, 2012

I recently bought this book and have been crocheting up a storm of snowflakes. I love the gallery section (Snowflake Showcase) which allows you to preview all 100 snowflakes. It is fun to see them in not just pure white, but also in pastels. The project gallery in the back offers photo ideas of ways you can use your finished snowflakes, such as coasters, notecard embellishments, as well as ornaments. This section has inspired a couple of holiday gift ideas for me. I have also made one "snowflake" in worsted weight yarn and can see potential in using some of the patterns in a larger scaled project, such as an afghan.The instruction section is arranged with three levels of difficulty. There are 30 beginner patterns, 40 intermediate and 30 advanced. Each pattern has a clear, colored photo of the snowflake. The instructions are very clearly written and so far I haven't come across any errors. In addition to the written instructions, each snowflake pattern has a symbol chart, which I find helpful. Very uniquely and adding to the fun, each pattern in this book has a snow or ice related name, such as Droxtal, Ice Prism or Boreas, along with a short definition of the name. And of course, each snowflake has exactly six points. (I mention this, because of another crochet pattern book that features snowflakes with more than six points.)This is a wonderful book, both as a pattern book and as a picture book.2-NOV-2012 UPDATE: During my recent surgery recovery, I gave myself the goal of making all 100 snowflakes. I can now report I have done this....I've made all 100! I used Size 3 thread and a 2.25 mm hook for all snowflakes, so mine are a bit bigger than those in the book. Depending on the complexity, each snowflake took me somewhere between 15 and 45 minutes to stitch. (Weaving in ends and blocking added another few minutes each.)I've uploaded a few photos to Amazon, including a series of photos taken of snowflakes before, during and after blocking. I highly recommend blocking! I used heavy spray starch, spraying them while they lay on a cloth, then pinning them to the blocking boards I made using the book's instructions. The spray starch gave the snowflakes a bit of body and helps them hold their nice shape, without making them stiff.I did want to report my experience with the patterns themselves. I used a combination of the written instructions and the charts, sometimes relying more on one than the other, but generally consulting both. With only a few exceptions, I had no troubles with either. Considering that there are 100 patterns, the fact that I found errors on only five of them, is quite remarkable. ~ On Snowflakes #21, #43 and #73, the written instructions did not agree with the chart on Rounds 5, 2 and 5, respectfully. Snowflake #66 had an unnecessary written "fasten off" instruction on Round 3, the pattern having been an expansion of the previous snowflake. And Snowflake #74's chart had an unnecessary "floating" chain 3. (13-JAN-2013 Update: Pattern #84's written pattern does not match the chart on Round 1)And, if you are wondering what I'm going to do with 100 snowflakes, most will be going to my church's annual holiday bazaar, but a few will grace my own Christmas tree. Happy Stitching!

The patterns are cute enough but are very simple which is ok i guess. My frustration is that there are no stitch counts per round. That's kind of unheard of with patterns. I was disappointed.

Beginners could probably follow many of the patterns in this book, but may find they need to spend more time working to understand the patterns. Diagrams are included (hurrah) but don't have alternating row colors. There are 2-3 snowflakes on each page, with 2 types of instructions: traditional shorthand notation, and a stitch diagram (does not use alternating row colors). There is a photo of each completed snowflake too. I don't like the index a ton, it's very artistically arranged, which makes it annoying to find the snowflake page order quickly. On the other hand, the index is a photo index, so it's really easy to see if you like the look of a snowflake while browsing it. All the snowflakes in this book appeared to be hexagonally-based (an old Dover snowflake ornament book had a couple 9 pointed and 7 pointed snowflakes) but there is a wide variety of designs and frankly I find them prettier than the Dover ones. The author also talks about how you can mix and match the various crochet stitches on a basic hexagonal base to invent your own snowflakes. === This author also has a Step-by-Step book that is aimed for crocheters who are not yet comfortable following patterns in-the-round. I didn't check every snowflake to see if they overlapped, but at least one of the patterns in the Step-by-Step book wasn't included in the 100 Snowflakes book. The introduction chapter is nearly the same in each book.

First, the good things: (1) Great production value -- nice heavy pages & excellent photos; (2)a "gallery" of snowflakes in many colors so you can see the variety & which ones appeal, (3) really excellent instructions with both written instructions and a diagram, (4) some of the "advanced" snowflakes are as pretty as any I have seen, (5) everything is well explained to newcomers in snowflakes and/or thread crochet, (6) many of the snowflakes hold their shape well and that provides instant satisfaction.The things that I was not happy with: (1) With a hundred snowflakes, I would have expected a lot of variety, but instead they are all very much alike. They change in the details, and they're nicely designed, but if you compare them with other snowflakes out there (search "crochet snowflakes"), they are way too similar. (2) None of them have any spires. Complex borders are one of the coolest (haha) things about snowflakes, spires included, but these are just missing. In general, the borders are solid and similar. (3) They have a very limited vocabulary of stitches. For example, there might be one approximation of a picot loop/fan in the whole book, and there is not a single cluster stitch. For people who are new to this and don't know what I'm talking about, these techniques are not hard, and you could easily learn them from the basic skills in this book. Why on earth does she not include these beautiful and easy to learn types of stitches/pattern elements? That would make for more variety. (4) The "beginner, intermediate, advanced" snowflakes should really be called, "small, medium and large." I am not the greatest crocheter in the world, but IMO there are no advanced snowflakes in this book. (5) These snowflakes seem to be designed for instant gratification (which is why they have no spires, which take longer to complete than non-spire patterns). There could really have been a progression from easy to advanced, introducing new elements as you went along, but the patterns are all meant to be completed in an hour (depending on your speed, experience and skill) and that means there can't be some of the best elements in snowflakes. (6) The section on designing snowflakes is useless, except for the part that suggests you use these as a base and add your own borders. Now if only they would show you some of the neat things you can do on borders, that would be great.I'm glad I got this book and have made a number of the snowflakes in it, but I was frustrated because it wasn't what it could have been.

this pattern book is wonderful. especially if you prefer a visual chart. i find it is much easier to understand a written pattern if a chart is included. these are fun to make.

This book is excellent as the instructions (both written and chart) are neatly presented, and easy to understand. Patterns included range from beginner projects to more advanced. In addition each pattern is accompanied by a picture. Of the thirty snowflakes that I crocheted there have been no errors in the pattern. This is the book for crocheting snowflakes.

Awesome book, I'm just learning go crochet and can easily understand the written patterns and charts, it's in sections too from beginner to advanced with clear photos of finished articles, and some instructional/ advisory stuff at the start. Delivered quickly and well packed by Amazon, many thanks. I suppose the only criticism would be if they could have made it spiral bound for ease, but that doesn't detract from the content

Love the charts! I am not able to read a pattern so this was fantastic for me. The designs are great!

Beautiful snowflakes. Each made in about an hour. I used different sized yarns, crochet threads, and hooks to achieve larger, and smaller snowflakes.

This book is filled with so many great snowflake patterns to crochet and very easy to understand the pattern. Great idea to make some as gifts.