FOR-STYLE.INFO

This book is well laid out and easy to read. The first fifty pages or so are photos of all the patterns while the remainder of the book is the instructions on each design sorted by yarn type. Some really good stuff in here!
Rating: 5 / 5

Here’s what I liked:

Broken into sections by yarn/pattern weight:

Lace, Super-Fine, Fin, Light, Medium, Bulky

Includes easy-to-ready chart diagrams

Full color photos at beginning of the book.

Two-color printing for pattern details.

Includes patterns by over 70 designers including a small paragraph about the designer at the end of the book including web and location resources. See my list below for designers included in this book

Here’s what I didn’t like:

No index for knitted vs. crochet patterns. Have to look at each pattern individually.

Have to flip to color photo section. It would have been better with even a black & white small image of the item.

For these reasons I marked the book down by 1 star. Other that that it’s a lovely primarily knitting pattern book!

Designers include:

Andra Asars, Jean Austin, Betty Balcomb, Renee Barnes, Tonia Barry, Marci Blank, Susan Boye, Kelly Bridges, Linda Burt, Melissa Burt, Janice Bye, Cathy Carron, Jeni Chase, Grace Maggie Covey, Marlaine DesChamps, Judith Durant, Edie Eckman, Kathy Elkins, Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer, Bonnie Evans, Diana Foster, Bev Galeskas, Patti Ghezzi, Anne Carroll Gilmour, Cecily Glowik, Amy Greeman, Jazmine Greenlaw, Mary Jane Hall, Marion Halpern, Beth Hood, Amy O’Neil Houck, Vickie Howell, Sarah Keller, Ani Kristensen, Carol Lambos, Sonda J. Lee, Dawn Leeseman, Anne Lenzini, Anne Kuo Lukito, Ann McClure, Tina McElmoyl, Mary McGurn, Jillian Moreno, Melissa Morgan-oakes, Bobbe Morris, Lucy Neatby, Laura Nelkin, Kendra Nitta, Cheryl Oberle, Sarah-Hope Parmeter, Caroline Perisho, Isela G. Phelps, Amy Polcyn, Elizabeth Prusiewicz, Margaret Radcliffe, Marci Richardson, Cirilia Rose, Helene Rush, Anne K. Ryan, Gitta Schrade, Carol Scott, Carol J. Sorsdahl, Myrna A. I. Stahman, Gwen Steege, Judith L. Swartz, Kathleen Taylor, Martha Townsend, Jolene Treace, Beverly Vasquez, Katherine Vaughan, Rene E. Wells, Shelli Westcott, Erika Witham, Daniel Yuhas,

Rating: 4 / 5

The patterns in this book are organized by weight of yarn, with the larger number of projects being for medium weight yarn (30 patterns) and lightweight yarn (29 patterns). The images of all the finished projects are together at the front of the book. This may be a problem for some but it may also be convenient if, like me, you like to photocopy a pattern to use and don’t really need to always see the finished image of it as you’re knitting it.

Most of the patterns I looked at are given for only one size. And most of the baby patterns are for newborns or infants. Experienced knitters will be able to adjust for size, I suppose. And there are several quite helpful sizing guideline tables in the appendix.

There are some lovely lace patterns (it is a bit heavy on the laces), a few geometrics, and a couple cables. Overall a well-balanced collection.
Rating: 4 / 5

I’m a novice knitter who mostly makes scarves, but I have a ton of little lonely single skeins lying around and this book has plenty of projects that are easy for me to follow. They’re well-written and clear, and the projects themselves are really cute.
Rating: 5 / 5

I love this book! I have generally usually gone for BIG projects with lots of yarn. However, lately, I’ve been up for some instant gratification and have been enjoyed trying new techniques on smaller projects where if you screw something up, you can always rip it out without feeling like you have lost too much work.

This book provides lots and lots of inspiration using gorgeous yarns with pictures that leave you drooling. The yarns are decadent: cashmere, vicuna, qiviut, angora, alpaca, and silk. The accessories are mostly classic designs that will never go out of style (if you are going to drop 50 – 100 bucks on some qiviut yarn, you want to make sure you can wear whatever you make from it for years and years to come!).

The projects use all weights of yarn from a fine lace weight to a bulky weight. The techniques range from beginner-friendly to reasonably challenging. The accessories go from dressy beaded wristlets to sporty hats and and a cute little elephant hat.

Most of the projects are classic and monochromatic — relying on textured and lacy stitches to make the design stand out. However, there are a few that use hand-painted yarns and a splash of beads to add additional color and flash.

Most of the projects are your typical scarves, pillows, hats, wristlets, and socks. But then again, the scope of things you can make with just one skein is a fairly limited set. However, with the emphasis on texture and lace patterns, I almost view this book as a knitting stitch library where instead of showing you just square swatches, they actually give you a useful finished object to show for your efforts if you are wanting to learn a new stitch. With a little imagination, you could easily expand to create a larger design.

I’m not wild about the fact that all the pictures are located at the front of the book (I prefer them to be interspersed and located with the pattern itself), the book is very attractively done. The instruction pages are laid out in a clear concise format that are easy to follow. Most of the patterns are written instructions only but the more complex patterns do have graphs.

If you take the book to your local Kinkos, they can cut off the binding and replace it with a spiral binding, the book will lay flat allowing you to keep it in your bag and lay it flat while you are following the patterns.

I highly recommend this book. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go order the other books in the series because I’m hooked on the one-skein wonders.
Rating: 5 / 5