101 Designer One-Skein Wonders®: A World of Possibilities Inspired by Just One Skein

This book has some absolutely delicious patterns for knitting with one skein! Easy to read and follow.

I checked this book out from the library, renewed it as many times as possible. If I use a craft book over and over again I feel I owe it to the author to buy the book in appreciation for their generosity in sharing their knowledge. I love this book. I made the headband for my little cousin, made a scarf and wanted to do more. There is a scarf in here that I tried over and over again. When I finally got the hang of it I ran out of yarn. One day I'll try again. With more yarn. Unlike many other knitting books I have perused from the library, there are many projects in this book that I wanted to try. Many are beautiful or unusual. This is a great source for gift projects.

This is the second book in the "One Skein Wonders" group, and it is a useful addition to a knit and crochet library. There are, as promised, 101 designs to choose from, and I bought both books hoping to find creative short duration projects that would make use of any number of orphan skeins left over from completed projects or skeins that I purchased on sale. Of course the term "skein" is rather meaningless, since the lengths included in one skein vary not only with the weight of the yarn but also with the way a company chooses to package it. Fortunately both One Skein Wonder books list the yardage required. Still, it is a bit disheartening to find a project pictured that you know would be great in one of the yarns from your stash, only to discover that even though it is the correct weight, your skein contains only 93 yards and the project calls for a skein of 256 yards. All of the projects included in the "Designer" version are pictured in color at the beginning of the book (grouped by yarn weights), with the page number and pattern name superimposed on the picture. This is a nice organizational improvement over the first book, which lists pattern names and page numbers in the center of a group of photos identified by letters of the alphabet. Missing from the second book is the small photo next to the actual pattern. Instead, the "Designer" book is littered with various sizes of the same distracting filler graphic. Each pattern does include a page reference to a picture of the project. A glossary at the end also includes some clear illustrations. Several of the lace weight patterns include charts, but the vast majority of the pattern instructions are written out. This is a handy, useful book that is definitely worth buying.

Great patterns

Horaay! this book is like a little box of candy, with small, relatively easy and fast projects that are interesting enough to challenge you - but not frustrating, if like me you are in the begginer-intermediate level. I have made my first wristwarmers and thus used dpn's for the first time following a pattern from the book, and let me tell you , they were super fast to knit and look gorgeous! Things i love about it are: - The projects are divided by yarn weight! In the past I've had trouble finding a yarn suitable for some cute project, because they call for specific yarn content and I never know how it will work out if I change it. In this book, you have the freedom to change them without concern; i made the said wristwarmers in Vanna's Choice (instead of the yumy but not available to me cotton-bamboo blend), and they look awesome! - There's no skill level printed to any project. I know, this may sound weird as a plus but come on, how many times have you refrained from starting something because you thought you were not advanced enough? see my point? - the designs are Just.Too.Cute. :) They make great presents!

I bought the Kindle version of this book (to read on my IPad). Unless I am missing something, it is very awkward to navigate your way through this book. All the project pictures are in the front of the book, but you cannot jump straight from the picture to the pattern!!! I love having all the pictures together, but in print it is easy just to jump to the pattern page, then back to the pictures. So now you have to memorise the pattern name and either search for it or go to the index again and look for it and touch the link....crazy. Having said that, I LOVE the content and would highly recommend the paperback version which I am sorry I did not buy.

I have the original One Skein book and love the projects that are in it, so I was excited when the new one came out. I was not disappointed. There are many cute projects here, many that even a beginner(I would consider myself an advanced beginner) could do. I have never made a sweater yet, but I know I could knit 3 of the 4 baby sweaters. There are many cute socks, hats and scarves too. I've already picked out 23 patterns that I would like to make some time. That's not bad when most knitting books seem to have 2-3 patterns that I would really want to make. While there are patterns for many different weights of yarn, the largest chapter is the worsted weight chapter. Some of my favorite patterns (and to give you an idea of what's in the book) are: magic loop minis(mini mittens, sweater, and hat), wave jumper, sock-it-to-me scarf, garter stitch loop-through scarf, pink tweed for baby(sweater), baby squash hat, child's hat with pompom, boy-oh-boy(sweater), not-your-average washcloths, new directions hat, baby basket hat, fishbowl baby hat, elizabeth's perfect hat, spiral hat, kat's hat, taos slippers, blanket buddy, waterfall scarf, cross-stitch scarf, infant's roll neck pullover, and zane's coming home sweater. I think most knitters will find many patterns in this book that they would like to knit. A great addition to your knitting library.

I can't wait to begin making all of these ! I must caution though...I haven't yet tried her instructions yet! I'll update my review after I complete a couple, to let you know how well her instructions are written. But that aside, I'm VERY pleased with the projects she presents. Out of 101 projects, there's only one I don't particularly care for! That in itself is amazing! While several of the projects are hats and scarfs, there are a nice variety of projects, including, but not limited to, some sweaters for toddlers as well as shrugs and socks for adults. While using only one skein of yarn seems limiting in the number and types of products you can make, Judith does a wonderful job of showing there is a larger variety of projects than you would think possible!