Define: One Skein

Okay, apparently the book One Skein and I have different viewpoints.

I view "one skein" as those lovely and pricey single-skeins of stuff I purchased back when I was a wee knitter (so, like, a month ago) only interested in garter-stitching skinny scarves. I hadn't yet discovered the treasure trove of reasonably-priced yummy yarns on the 'net, and I was paying too much money for yarn at little shops. (I love my little shops, but you know how it is...) So we're talking some 50 grams, maybe a 100 gram or two.

The book One Skein strongly believes that "one skein" is a 900 yard ball of bulky weight cotton.

Okay, if I had a bunch of 900 yard balls of bulky cotton lying around, would I really need your help in determining what to do with this lonely (ginormous) ball of yarn???

(I acknowledge that there are some really good patterns in here...but there are way too many requiring more than 300 yards of yarn...it just seems counterintuitive to me.)

I need to get some pictures in, I know. I'm working on a pretty wrap right now. When it's blocked, I'll be very pleased with it - a simple pattern (I added stripes for interest...and because I don't have enough of any one colour...) and it's turning out nicely thus far. Once that's done, it's back to the giftie shawl and Travis' socks. (The shawl is in the same stage of KnitKnitKnitKnit Why Isn't This GOING ANYWHERE?? that it's been languishing in for two weeks now. Gotta love the wide parts.)