Book Review: The Knitter’s Book of Yarn

October 17th, 2007 at 10:52 am (reviews)

I managed to get a copy of the new book by Clara Parkes The Knitter’s Book of Yarn: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Using, and Enjoying Yarn. I was pleasantly surprised by the content inside. It feels more like a textbook about my favorite subject than a fluffy pattern book. There are a lot of terms used that spinners will recognize, but I don’t think you’ll need to be a spinner to get the most out of this book. Terms are well explained, there are a TON of color pictures. Many yarns discussed are currently available yarns, but the knowledge you gain from it will apply to any yarn you’d be able to find in the future too.

There are patterns in the book, which is about 2/3rds of the pages in the book, but the other 1/3 is so chock full of really great information about how yarn is made it’s not just a pattern book. The patterns are organized by the number of plies used to create the yarn - and this is unique to any book I’ve seen before. It has a good variety of patterns from simple to intermediate to some lacy things. It’s got some cute sweaters, some others that I wouldn’t make and also some great accessories that are on my to-knit one day list.

It really makes you sit back and think about the yarn you’re using and the project you’re using it for.

I’m glad to have added this one to my library, and I highly recommend to anyone looking for details about how yarn is made and what it might mean to your finished project.

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