Book Review: One Skein Crochet by Ellen Gormley

I don’t know about you, but I’m somewhat notorious for buying single skeins of yarn and then …having absolutely no clue what to do with them. Maybe they appealed to my sense of color, maybe they were some luxurious fiber, maybe I was just having a bad day, but these beautiful skeins of yarn show up in my house and I find myself at an absolute loss as to what to do with them. Thankfully, Ellen Gormley’s new book, One Skein Crochet (Interweave, 2019), has plenty of instructions and inspirational projects to help you work through your stash one skein at a time.

One Skein Crochet is a collection not only of one skein crochet patterns but also tips and tricks to help crocheters create their own one skein projects. The first half of the book really helps the reader understand the yarn they have—maybe you picked up a skein of handspun yarn that didn’t have a label, or the label came off—Ellen walks you through how to figure out the yardage you have at hand and gives you ideas of what kind of projects you can make with those single skeins. There are a few stitch patterns you can try and an in-depth way to approach designing simple crochet projects with only one skein.

The latter half of the book features 15 crochet patterns for you to make if you just want to get down to the business of crocheting. Many of them are small, stylish accessories, but there’s a baby blanket you can make if you happen to have a single skein of yarn with a massive amount of yardage! (You could also make it with multiple skeins of yarn, obviously.)

Two projects in the book use Berroco yarn—the Market Bag uses just one ball of Berroco Remix® Light in fun crochet motif that’s carried through the strap.

The Horizontal Slouch Hat uses just one hank of Berroco Vintage® to crochet a cute slouch hat.

Add One Skein Crochet by Ellen Gormley add to your crochet bookshelf for all of those single skeins in your stash! Available in many bookstores and online.