I hadn’t crocheted for more than forty years, but when a friend – who was crocheted a multitude of woollen octopuses – sent me the pattern, I decided to give it a try. Result: a mutant albino, only resembling an octopus by having eight legs (well, almost). So, I decided I had to learn again, how to crochet properly. Especially as I now find it difficult to knit. This book looks to be the one to set me on the right track. The step-by-step pictures and instructions are very clear and easy to follow – including instructions for left-handed crocheters. The book starts with the most basic stitches, then shows how you can easily adapt them (step by step) to create more advanced stitches right up to some really quite complex looking lacey patterns. The twenty projects did not on the whole appeal to me – except maybe the baby’s bootees. But there are hundreds of ideas with the different stitch patterns to keep me going. I was particularly interested in the hexagon and pentagon pieces, and the lace edgings. There are also instructions on working beads into the crochet, rag-strip crochet and finishing off, as well as a section on different yarn types and tools required, and a clear list of what pattern abbreviations mean. This book is exactly what I needed. Any resulting mutant articles will be completely due to my ineptitude (impatience, or inability to follow clear instructions) – not due to any fault of this excellent book.