This is a new part work magazine and as normal the first issue is at a cut price to encorrage you to try it. I quite often buy the first part if it is something I like but I haven't gone any farther in years. Most part work magazines give you very little each week when you compare them to other magazines but then they do give you items to allow you to make whatever it is they are about but over the time it takes you to get everything it tends to cost far more than buying it outright and they are often bad quality but that's like many things in life you can buy something outright for a good price or overtime for an inflated one.. do I think they are good value? Not normally but they do allow you to get something a bit at a time and there have been times in my life that has suited me, so while I think they are over inflated I don't totally knock them though I have noticed they don't seem to try very hard on quality..
So what about the Art of crochet, well the first issue you get a 4mm hook (so that's the 99p already) a dvd showing a few very, very basics of crochet, a leaflet doing the same again, a leaflet extolling the virtues of the later issues and a slightly longer magazine, with some basic stitches, the first blanket square, and a few other patterns. The yarn you get is two balls. a 16g one of a light brown (for practising) and a 25g of a raspberry (for the first square), both are acrylic and OK quality but nothing special. I assume from what is said the 25g is the normal size of yarn you will get each issue.
I don't think I'd make the blanket, I don't much like many of the squares but the colours are OK and I could see using them for other squares. I can also see it might be worth getting the first few issues to see what it is like. If you subscribe you get issues 2 and 3, 2 more balls of yarn, a yarn case, a travel case and a hook roll plus a binder and dividers for 1.99.. From then on you get 4 issues every 4 weeks at 2.99 per issue.. there are a couple more extras you can get with the first couple of deliveries depending how you pay. I suspect it would get samey very fast and these days with the wealth of on-line free patterns and so forth there is far less need for a cheap gradual information source like this but the small bite size nature can make it easier to get your head round than the over wealming amount of info you get on the net. For someone starting off the first few issues might be quite useful to give you an easy slow in to the craft.. 120 issues is probably over kill though so I suspect there is a fairly fast fall off of subscribers.
