Odd Ball Knitting: Creative Ideas for Leftover Yarn [Paperback]

Barbara Albright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 6, 2005

From coast to coast, all knitters have one thing in common: leftover yarn

Odd Ball Knitting solves the conundrum of what to make with your yarn stash by offering more than thirty beautiful projects that don’t look as if they were made with odds and ends. From stylish accessories to decorations for your home, there’s something fun and unexpected to knit from every strand you’ve been saving. Patterns are organized within chapters by the amount and type of yarn required to complete each project, so knitters with lots of extra yarn will rejoice in the Felted Patchwork Rug or the funky I-80 Poncho, while those with a more modest collection can stitch Curlilocks Finger Puppets, Mini Christmas Stockings, and other quick projects. For the scarf lover in all of us, a special section featuring reversible scarf patterns provides clever new ideas for everyone’s favorite first project.

Transforming your collection of mismatched yarn into stylish, practical accessories has never been easier. Author Barbara Albright offers strategies for using color, determining yardage, and combining yarn in unique ways. Odd Ball Knitting provides fresh new designs to change your hodgepodge of scraps into ingenious, fashionable, one-of-a-kind creations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

No, oddball knitting does not mean knitting strange-looking things. Rather, the term is a literal reference to the odd balls of yarn knitters tend to collect; half-used skeins leftover from finished projects. Some of the most creative knitting can grow out of using your "stash," says Albright, editor of Knitter's Stash and author of Simple Knits for Sophisticated Living. She provides helpful information on storing yarn, figuring out how much yarn you have (e.g., how many yards per ounce, etc.), and then presents an array of projects. Naturally, most of her suggested projects are small: sachets, hats, socks and mini Christmas stockings, though there are a few bigger items, such as a poncho and a felted patchwork rug. (A few tend toward the silly, like the amulet pouch.) Albright's advice is indeed helpful; she suggests, for instance, using novelty yarns to make purses, and ribbon yarns to make scarves, and sprinkles the book with tips on juxtaposing colors and working with multiple textures. Although her instructions are straightforward, prior knitting knowledge is necessary-which shouldn't be an issue for most, since anyone with a yarn stash has done their fair share of knitting.
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About the Author

Barbara Albright was a seasoned writer as well as a passionate knitting and craft designer. Barbara authored several books including Odd Ball Knitting, Knitter’s Stash, and Simple Knits for Sophisticated Living. She was a contributing editor to Interweave Knits and has written about knitting for Vogue Knitting, Knitter’s, Family Circle Easy Knitting, Cast-On, and Knit It. In addition to fiber, Barbara was passionate about food and authored more than twenty cookbooks and wrote for many newspapers and magazines, including the Associated Press, Good Housekeeping, Traditional Home, Classic American Home, Country Living, the Los Angeles Times, Working Mother, 1001 Home Ideas, and Americana. She was the editor in chief of Chocolatier magazine.

The Natural Knitter was the final accomplishment in her illustrious career. A native of Nebraska, Barbara resided in Wilton, Connecticut, with her husband, Ted, and two children, Samantha and Stone.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Potter Craft (September 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140005351X
• ISBN-13: 978-1400053513
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.5 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

180 of 180 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More about the "how" rather than the "what", September 7, 2005

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Odd Ball Knitting: Creative Ideas for Leftover Yarn (Paperback)

If you are looking for a treasury of patterns for your oddiments of yarn, this may not be the book for you. However, this reasonably priced volume has the "how" of oddball knitting, including calculating how much yarn you have, weights, lengths to finish a row, how to combine colors and most importantly, how to safely store your stash of yarn. The patterns include a stunning shawl, scarves, hats, purses, socks and an Amish-inspired afghan.

There are 31 patterns in all, but the main use of this book is to know HOW to combine yarns to make something out of nearly nothing. If you are bothered by those golf-ball sized bits of sock yarn after making a pair of socks, or want to use a single ball of novelty yarn that was so tempting you bought just ONE, this is for you. But this book demands you use YOUR creativity, so don't look for designs here, just seeds for design ideas.

96 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not totally unique -- but still helpful for the stash-stumped, September 15, 2005

By 

Kristin Dreyer Kramer (NightsAndWeekends.com) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Odd Ball Knitting: Creative Ideas for Leftover Yarn (Paperback)

For knitters looking to clear the stash out from under the bed (to make room for-let's be honest here-more yarn), Barbara Albright has written Odd Ball Knitting. In this book, Albright provides a plethora of tips and patterns for knitters looking to do a little stash-busting. From small patterns that use just a little bit of yarn (like finger puppets or scarves or sachets) to larger projects that use different kinds of yarn to create one unique piece (like a colorful striped poncho or shawl), Albright provides plenty of solutions for stashes of every size and color palette.

While many of the projects are pretty standard-projects that you can find on the pages other knitting books and magazines-Albright does something that no one else has done. She puts them together in one stash-focused book to aid the stash-stumped. She also throws in tips for storing yarn, stash-busting, and even for figuring out just how much yarn is left on a partially-used ball. The chart provided in the back of the book also allows you to choose projects based on what you've got stored behind your sofa.

If your home is under siege by yarn balls of various colors and sizes and you don't feel like flipping through your collection of books and magazines to search for just the right pattern, Odd Ball Knitting will get you started on the road to stash-free living. Or at least it'll help you clear up some room for the next clearance sale at your local yarn shop.

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book--but don't buy it for the patterns!, November 28, 2005

By 

M. Thacher "Knitting Knerd" (Western Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Odd Ball Knitting: Creative Ideas for Leftover Yarn (Paperback)

I got this book out from the library and liked it so much I'm buying it--even though I've sworn off buying knitting books. It has great tips for getting rid of all those half-balls, quarter-balls, 3-4 yards of your very, very favorite yarn ever. As well as hints for preventing and dealing with moth infestations, storing yarn, and fantastic technical details about figuring out how much yarn you need for a project. It has some nifty patterns, but you can find all sorts of stuff on-line for free. The real value of this book is helping get your creative juices flowing. Note that, since it's for people with lots of leftover yarn, it's written for *experienced* knitters, not beginners! It's published in paperback, which helps keep the cost down. If you've got more than one giant box of leftover or neglected yarn, this book is for you (as well as anything by Kaffe Fassett).