I made one of my best afghans ever from this book.

It was, in fact, from the pattern for the sheep afghan that is pictured on the cover.

I am, however, almost incapable of following directions so instead of black muzzles, I did the muzzles in a color called "linen." Instead of a white border, I used a varigated color called "bikini." To add a little "je ne sais quoi" to give it that special "quoi," I appliqued a sun in the upper right hand corner, interspersed palm trees, buckets and beach balls on the body of the afghan, and used tambour crochet to write out "Sheep at the Beach" across the top.

If I hadn't come up with all the extra stuff, the project actually would have gone pretty quickly, and it was easy to make with a wonderful effect.

The directions were clear and to my mind easy to follow. I don't recall having any difficulties grasping that concept that was being conveyed, nor do I recall any errors.

The reason for the four star rating is that a good number of the patterns are for knitted afghans, and I don't knit, so there weren't any skills I picked up from those patterns.

However, I have never come across a Jean Leinhauser book that was anything less than excellent. ( )