“The Complete Guide to Crochet Dolls and Animals” — Book Review

Amigurumi has quickly become one of my favorite types of crochet projects, and I’m eager to learn and make more. Time to dive into the world of amigurumi books and reviews! This book was recommended to me, so I placed a hold with my local library and couldn’t contain my excitement when it was ready. I was prepared to love it, based on the beautiful photographs and generally positive reviews, but… I don’t love it. I’ll tell you why, and hopefully you can decide if the book would help you or not.

NOTE: I am not affiliated with this author/publisher, and none of the links in this review are affiliate links. This means I am not compensated in any way for this review, nor do I earn a commission if you click on a link to make a purchase.

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The Complete Guide to Crochet Dolls and Animals: Amigurumi Techniques Made Easy

This is a book for new and experienced crocheters alike to learn techniques for solid construction, beautiful finishing, and making original designs.

“Why We Wrote This Book,” page 7

What’s Inside?

I love the whimsical, creative tone of this book and the way its information is structured. The Table of Contents breaks chapters 1-7 down into many, many sub-sections, making the TOC 4 pages long. (I love a long TOC, and that isn’t sarcasm. I really do.) You can easily look up a specific topic quickly, which is a great help.

Shelved in between these main chapters are other “extra” sections: four amigurumi galleries, one special feature, one crochet fabric gallery, and a resource section in the back. I’ll go over these sections first, then move on to the main chapters. (Except for the resource section because there isn’t much to tell. There’s nothing in there that a search for “amigurumi” or “crochet” won’t yield.)

Amigurumi Galleries

I love the amigurumi galleries. I think they’re a great idea! Each gallery is 3-4 pages of amigurumi pictures, with captions highlighting their design features. For example, next to a spectacular fish-like creature with spines and stripes, it says: “This unique toy is full of character. By carefully crocheting with thin yarn, you can reproduce fine details” (page 70). With a picture of a crocheted puppy, the caption reads: “This critter has weights in its head and paws so it can hang off the edges of tables and boxes” (page 9).

I would’ve loved to see more pictures of finished amigurumi projects, just for the joy of it. The photos are high quality and the amigurumi themselves are great. Each gallery has about 6-8 toys in it, so I wouldn’t purchase this book solely for the galleries. They’re still a nice touch! There are also pictures of amigurumi sprinkled throughout the margins, sometimes with tips and sometimes just for decoration.

One of the opening pages warns that “…all samples shown in this book are for illustration purposes only” (page 5), but that hasn’t stopped some people from expecting patterns for the pictured toys. I read multiple reviews online complaining that the book only contains three patterns, and none of them are for the polar bear on the cover. That’s definitely something to be aware of if you’re considering purchasing this book. Its purpose is primarily to teach techniques, not to provide patterns.

Special Feature

The “Special Feature” sounds more exciting than it is. It’s one single page split into two sections: “Differences Between Increases and Decreases” and “Left-handed Crochet” (page 68). That’s it. The increases and decreases should’ve been integrated into the chapters. And if you’re going to make a special feature for left-handed crocheters (which is a great idea), surely they deserve more than one paragraph. At least there’s a picture of a cute giraffe on this page!

Crochet Fabric Gallery

I loved this section, because it’s essentially a small stitch dictionary. (And I love stitch dictionaries.) The fabric gallery includes 23 stitch patterns all worked in the same type of yarn and accompanied by a clear photo and a stitch diagram. Some of the swatches even show what the wrong side looks like. Cool!

From Here On: Too Many Errors

The galleries are fantastic, but they’re only sides to the main dish. The book’s title promises a “complete guide,” so the expectation is that the bulk of the book should teach amigurumi techniques. To a certain extent, it does. There are sections on “making a crisp edge” (page 95), different ways of “securing yarn tails” (pages 146-148), and “cinching shut” openings (page 132), to name a few. To be clear, there are a lot of good techniques in this book and even more inspiration.

The problem is that the majority of the instructions are, in my opinion, unclear and/or incomplete. Some instructions skip steps, while others are downright confusing. There are also cases where the photos and written instructions don’t seem to belong together. It’s just full of mistakes. That may or may not bother you as much as it bothers me… I don’t know how many of these mistakes happened during the book’s translation from Japanese to English, but I do know it needs a good proofreading.

Chapters 1-3

What about the actual content? The first chapter, on amigurumi basics, starts from the very beginning. It tells you what tools you need, what kinds of safety eyes and noses exist, about yarn textures, names of amigurumi parts and “how to read a crochet diagram” (page 24). This is valuable information for beginners, but the overall poor quality of the instructions make it hard to trust. Is xyz what they meant, or another typo? A beginner with little crochet experience might not recognize some of the mistakes or be able to read between the lines.

Chapters 2 and 3 are about crochet techniques starting from more basic things like how to single crochet and increase stitches in chapter 2, advancing to things like intarsia and inserting beads in chapter 3. One thing to note is that this book uses a few abbreviations that are unfamiliar to me, such as “sc tbl” for a single crochet in the back loop only. It’s not wrong, but it’s different from what I’m used to. This could be a linguistic thing that didn’t translate the way an American reader would expect. (The abbreviations are explained.)

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 4 and 5 are about assembling and finishing models, with similar editing and clarity issues as described above. Chapter 6 is about creating original designs, and it’s the shortest chapter in the book. It simply offers a few things to think about when planning your own toys: eye placement, body proportions, and color choices. Then there’s a Q&A, from which my favorite advice is drawn (I’m being sarcastic):

I don’t know when to increase or decrease the number of stitches when crocheting a three-dimensional object.
Even if items have the same degree of increases or decreases, the resulting shape can change depending on their arrangement, so just crochet and see what happens. The fastest way is to try crocheting from a number of crochet diagrams until you’ve mastered shaping.

“Q&A: Original Amigurumi Design,” page 190

Reading “just crochet and see what happens” made me laugh out loud. Truly, that’s how I approach crochet! Still, in a Q&A, that’s not a helpful answer. I can appreciate that you can’t really teach someone how to know when to increase or decrease in a short Q&A section. So why bother? The book wouldn’t have suffered any if they’d left this whole 6th chapter out, in my opinion.

Chapter 7 contains three “lessons” (patterns) of amigurumi projects. Just like chapter 6, I found this chapter pretty useless. The three patterns are for a bear cub pouch, a mouse (he’s cute!), and a girl in a ruffled skirt. The patterns list materials and tools, and then present vague written instructions with crochet charts. For example, the first instruction for the mouse is “1. Crochet each piece following the diagrams” (page 211). If you love diagrams and charts, you might like these patterns. If you rely on written instructions, good luck. Chapter 7 doesn’t add much value to the book.

My Bottom-line Opinion

This book claims to be for new and experienced crocheters, but I’d argue that a new crocheter would be too confused to learn much and an experienced crocheter would already know most of it (but may pick up some new tips). For that reason, I wouldn’t recommend buying this book. If you have access to it through a library, I would recommend borrowing it to peruse the pictures!

There were things that I enjoyed in here, and even things that I loved. The book is super attractive. However, the bottom line is that the quality of the instruction was so bad that I wouldn’t rely on it. The ideas in here are good, but the delivery makes you doubt even the clear parts that make sense.

This is a bummer of a book review, but it’s just my opinion and I don’t know what’s best for you! I looked at reviews online and I seem to be in the minority among people who think it’s the best amigurumi book out there. What do you think about it, if you’ve already read it? Do typos drive you up the wall or can you ignore them?

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Work Cited

The Japan Amigurumi Association. The Complete Guide to Crochet Dolls and Animals: Amigurumi Techniques Made Easy. Tuttle Publishing, 2018.