Long time and regular readers may recall that about two-and-a-half years ago, I wrote this blog post about my college roommate and me getting together for a crochet lesson.

Here is a photo of us as we were then:

Since that photo was taken, the two of us have continued to hurtle through middle age at what seems to be the speed of light, but Sally still has not yet made herself the poncho she wants, needs, and will love, so this weekend, I sent her a series of texts, including this one:

To which she replied:

She told me she had a square in mind, and when I asked her what square had caught her fancy, she sent me this photo:

Then I asked her what book it was in, and she sent me this photo:

As luck would have it, that same book graces my crochet bookcase. I went upstairs pulled it off the shelf, and when I was busy with errands both yesterday and today, it was in my crochet travel bag along with a supply of yarn and an array of hooks so that I could try out the “Big Round,” and that exchange led me to what ended up being an inadvertent book review.

On my way to page 102 where directions for the “Big Round” are, I stumbled on Block 64, Sunshine Lace, and could not resist. While I was visiting with my cousin yesterday, I took hook to yarn and got a start on my first effort seen here:

I liked how it was shaping up, but thought that I should use a smaller hook for my next effort and today, while I was waiting in between another round of errands, I got the chance.

In addition to using a smaller hook, I also eliminated one round to get a slightly smaller square:

Satisfied (for the moment) with my newly completed and modified Block 64, I moved onto Block 98 which is another square in which my roommate had expressed an interest, and I got this far before it was time to pack up my crochet and move onto the next thing:

Jan Eaton’s 200 Crochet Blocks is not a book for beginners, not because the squares are  difficult, but because the directions for a number of the squares have errors in them that an experienced crocheter can easily navigate, but which will bedevil and potentially frustrate even the best of beginners.

Interweave.com does have an errata page for 200 Crochet Blocks that is easy to access, but it only covers the known and corrected errors.

In my forays into this book, Block 64 and Block 29 (which I worked at an earlier date) both had substantial errors in the written directions and neither Block listed in the errata sheet, so I think it is a safe bet that there are many more unaddressed errors.

So while you might be tempted (as I was) to purchase the book because of the wonderful graphics and photos, be forewarned, the directions are often not accurate, and whoever uses it will need to have enough crochet skills to be able figure it out for her (or him) self from the photos.