An in-depth guide to choosing the right yarn for your project—including ten patterns that explore how different yarns affect your final product. If you want to change the yarn in a designer’s knitting pattern, you’ll face a basic question: “What art the best substitutions?” In this comprehensive guide, Carol J. Sulcoski gives you all the information you need to learn in order to evaluate the types of yarns and patterns that are best suited for each other. She focuses on specific yarn characteristics that will dramatically affect the substitution process, breaks down the process into manageable steps, and provides ten versatile, classic patterns on which to experiment with your own yarn substitutions, each one with swatch photo of three possible alternative replacements as starting points.

Not all yarns are alike. Some make our hearts and hands sing, some get the job done without much fanfare, and some cause nothing but frustration and disappointment. The gorgeous pair of socks that emerged from their first bath twice as long as when they went in. The delicate baby sweater that started pilling before it even came off the needles. The stunning colorwork scarf that you can’t wear because the yarn feels like sandpaper against your neck. If only there were a way to read a skein and know how it would behave and what it wanted to become before you invested your time, energy, and money in it. Now there is! With The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, you’ll learn how to unleash your inner yarn whisperer. In these pages, Clara Parkes provides in-depth insight into a vast selection of yarns, giving you the inside stories behind the most common fiber types, preparations, spins, and ply combinations used by large-scale manufacturers and importers, medium-sized companies, boutique dye shops, community spinneries, and old-fashioned sheep farms. And, because we learn best by doing, Parkes went to some of the most creative and inquisitive design minds of the knitting world to provide a wide assortment of patterns created to highlight the qualities (and minimize the drawbacks) of specific types of yarns. The Knitter’s Book of Yarn will teach you everything you need to know about yarn: How it’s made, who makes it, how it gets to you, and what it longs to become. The next time you pick up a skein, you won’t have to wonder what to do with it. You’ll just know–the way any yarn whisperer would.

Colorful photographs illustrate this step-by-step instruction guide for beginning knitters.

Contains projects from hats and mittens to scarves, wraps, and even sweaters and afghans.

Whip up a fresh batch of amigurumi! Crochet Cafe features over 30 adorable and appetizing food-inspired amigurumi patterns. Lauren Espy, author of 2019's No. 1 best-selling amigurumi book in the United States, Whimsical Stitches, gives you the ingredients and recipes you need to crochet your favorite meals and treats. Easy-to-follow patterns, detailed photographs, and helpful tips make this book perfect for novice and experienced crocheters alike. Enjoy: Brunch with eggs benedict or avocado toast Lunch on the go with a bento box or burrito A traditional Italian spaghetti dinner, complete with meatballs, red wine, and cannoli These simple and darling patterns are sure to bring a smile to your face. So, pick up a hook and have fun playing with your food!

These five pairs of crocheted chums - rabbits, mice, cats, foxes and bears - all have distinctive personalities and enviable wardrobes to mix and match.

In Uncommon Crochet, designer Julie Armstrong Holetz applies new ideas and unconventional materials--like wire, raffia, jute, sisal, recycled belts, fabric strips, and felted beads--to twenty-five patterns for bins, baskets, totes, handbags, clutches, jewelry, and more. Step-by-step instructions, detailed how-to photographs, and essential advice about creativity, design, and experimentation encourage you to play with fiber, add funky embellishments, and use your creative spirit to customize any pattern--even the ones in this book! From practical containers like Red's Goodie Basket (a stylish home for your WIP--works in progress) and Vintage Satchel (a sturdy retro messenger bag) to just plain fun projects like Petite Fleur Vases (tiny bud vases that hold water) and Sushi (crocheted California rolls, anyone?), Uncommon Crochet offers fresh twists on old-school techniques that turn simple projects into gift-worthy creations.

Don't be afraid to mix colors and cables! The often-repeated advice that it is best to choose solid-color yarns when you crochet cables is not always true. With a little bit of knowledge and planning, you can crochet beautiful Celtic cables and enhance the design with your choice of a multicolored yarn. Author Noelle R. B. Stiles is a vision scientist and has done extensive research into the art and science of color play (so that you don't have to!). What she brings to this book is the practical side of color usage. She gives you a broad look at how colors and designs work together and illustrates how color choices affect the final outcome of your crochet pieces. She specifically sets out to prove that multicolored yarns should not be sidelined in your textured crochet pieces and can be used to great advantage. With practical examples and 20 patterns, she shows how crochet designs can feature both a multicolored yarn and an intricate cable to gorgeous effect. Patterns include eye-catching scarves, hats, mitts, blanket, cardigan, and more. If you are new to cabling, there are step-by-step instructions and several beginner patterns. Pull out your favorite hand-painted or variegated yarn and give it a try!

Written by a pioneer of modern fashion knitwear, Classic Knits of the 1980s describes the principal fundamentals of knitwear design and features original, colourful, textural and fun knitting patterns that capture the fashion zeitgeist of the 1980s designer knitwear boom. As well as selling ready-made knitwear to stores, several designers made their patterns available as home knitting kits. Classic Knits of the 1980s features a range of innovative designs from Sandy Black knitting kits, many published here for the first time. The patterns are suitable for a broad range of knitting skills, from those with good basic knowledge of knitting to the more experienced knitter. Made up of two parts: Part 1 establishes the fashion and knitwear context of the period and its influence on the development of the designs, examining the entire creative process from inspiration to final pattern. Lavishly illustrated with photographs, diagrams and charts, special features include patchwork (modular) designs and intarsia or colour-block knitting, with techniques and tips for pattern calculations, working from charts and handling several colours. Part 2 then offers twenty-one original patterns and designs, grouped into themes of textural, graphic, heraldic and ornamental, plus the unique Siamese cat, leopard and tiger accessories. Contemporary photography, together with original images from the 1980s, illustrates the designs' timeless appeal, with close-up images of intricate pattern details and suggested design variations to aid creative knitters inspired by this pivotal decade.

Love the look of lace but think it’s too complicated for the average knitter? Think again! With this book, Anniken Allis throws wide the door to lace for all knitters. Utilizing simple, easy-to-learn lace patterns that fool the eye into thinking they are far more complex than they actually are, the patterns in this book are accessible to any knitter. Go ahead, give lace knitting a try! 20 gorgeous lace patterns any knitter can do Lace knitting tips and techniques Instructions on how to work all of the basic lace stitches Beautiful shawls, tops, scarves, mittens, and more How to read and use lace charts