Product Description

There are lonely, single skeins of yarn in every knitter’s closet — casualties of projects discarded in mid-row, single balls of luscious alpaca or cashmere that was too expensive to buy more than one, the leftovers from long-completed projects. Wherever they came from, those single skeins are a minor source of guilt for knitters everywhere. They really should be used, but for what?

Here are 101 original and charming solutions to the perpetual one-skein problem. Contributed by yarn shops across the country, there are hats, mittens, scarves, bags, socks, ponchos, baby sweaters, belts, headbands, a cell phone carrier, and even a tea cozy and a set of coasters for the home. A scrapbook of tastes and styles that celebrates the ingenuity of knitters nationwide, this is a collection with appeal for every type of stitcher.

With patterns arranged by yarn weight, knitters will easily find broad ranges of possibilities for their particular yarn orphans. Each pattern includes the names of the contributing yarn shop and the designer, and a black-and-white image of the completed project.

101 small, sweet patterns — enough to take care of the single skeins in everyone’s collection and prove once and for all that there is no such thing as leftover yarn!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10513 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
Judith Durant is a founding editor of Interweave Knits magazine, author of Never Knit Your Man a Sweater (unless you've got the ring), and editor of One-Skein Wonders. Her designs and articles have appeared in Interweave Knits, Beadwork, and Piecework magazines. She lives in Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Some Gems, Some Duds
I have inherited many orphan skeins from my grandmother's stash, and was looking to this book to make some use of them. All in all, I can say that this book was somewhat helpful. I think that the cell-phone case, while not original, was one of the coolest patterns in here!

Pros (the first two are its greatest strengths):
--The center of the book has color-photos of each and every project, cross-referenced to the page where its pattern can be found
--Patterns are organized by yarn type/weight, which is one of the most useful features I have ever seen in a knitting pattern book!
--IMHO, Two-thirds of the patterns are useful/wearable/would make great gifts
--Most of the patterns are easy for us newbie-knitters
--A good variety of items to knit
--Even the ubiquitous scarves and knits hats were creative

Cons:
--About a third of the projects were just not things that I would ever wear or make for someone else (weird things, like knit cravats, or funky purses and hats that just were not my style)
--Yarns detailed in each project were usually not commonly-found ones and had odd combinations of material types or were more expensive yarns, even though one would expect them to be easily "substitutable" in a one-skein project book.

More pros than cons make this a recommended knitting book for those of you with orphan skeins that you don't know how to use. It is worth its price!

Great, great, great ideas!
I ordered this book and was thrilled when it arrived. So many wonderful ideas. It's a must for any knitter with even a small stash! It will be used over and over. Small projects are perfect for in-between the large ones and this book offers lots! Many gift ideas collected into one book.

not bad... a nice compliment to my collection
I got this book for christmas... I like it. Mostly all knitting projects so if you crochet and don't knit, probably not the book for you. It's got some good projects in it just to have on hand.