Review: Crochet One-Skein Wonders

I...am a busy lazy blogger who has been otherwise occupied.  I have a lot of things I want to blog about right now: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Brad Paisley's new album, and Gail Simone's Batgirl #19.  This is, of course, in addition to the regular blogging that I normally do--I've just read Julie Garwood's Sweet Talk, and Janet Evanovich's Notorious Nineteen, some of my best friends are writing like maniacs, and in the meantime, I sent off a dissertation chapter two weeks ago to my director (which is awesome!).

But first things first.  I may get to these other subjects; I may not.  What I do have is a book review for you.

Durant, Judith and Edie Eckman. Crochet One-Skein Wonders: 101 Projects from Crocheters Around the World. Storey Publishing: 2013. Paperback. +288 pages.

Full Disclosure: I received a digital advanced reader's copy of this book for reviewing purposes.

I have but one complaint about this book: where are the difficulty guides?

This book is full of great projects, and as it says, they truly are projects from around the world--particularly, it features several amigurumi projects and several projects that feature Tunisian crochet.  Variety is certainly not lacking here--there are plenty of hat and scarf patterns, as part of the typical crochet fare (especially as you would expect for a book that focuses on one-skein projects)--but there are also pillows, jewelry, stuffed animals, baby clothes, and some neat projects like a water bottle holder, yoga mat bag, and e-reader holder.  And the authors have kindly added visual patterns as well as the usual scripted patterns for those who have difficulty following along with crochet patterns--they've thought of almost everything.

I tried my hand at a few projects, which is part of the reason this review has taken so long to come to light.  One of the first I tried was one of the fingerless gloves.  My hands are always freezing when I'm typing, so these were great.  I wasn't entirely sure that it was going to work when I was crocheting them, but they turned out.

I decided that I would try a few other projects out of the book as well.  The book is divided up into yarn weights, and I have a supply of worsted-weight yarn that makes my husband groan every time he sees it, so I thought I would try working with some of those projects, which was where I came straight into my complaint about this book.

I am not a novice crocheter.  I have made afghans and pillows, come up with my own amigurumi patterns, and to be honest, if Fox hadn't started sending cease and desist letters to Etsy shop owners who were selling versions of the Firefly 'Jayne' hat, I could churn those out without a problem.

Yet there are some real problems here with the fact that there aren't any clues on how difficult patterns are for crocheters.  Most of these patterns are for intermediate to expert crocheters, and even then, some might have problems, and I've wondered if there aren't any difficulty ratings because too many patterns would have a four or five out of five difficulty on them.

Still, for someone who's crocheted a long time and is looking for some variety, this book is a great resource.  A.