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.

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.

Presents sixty knitting projects by more than forty designers using Cascade 220 yarn, for such items as hats, scarves, socks, mittens, and shawls.