Not all yarns are alike and it happens far too often that we use the wrong type of yarn for the wrong project - sometimes with disasterous results. In these pages, Clara Parkes provides in-depth insight into a vast selection of yarns, giving you the inside stories behind the most common fibre 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 wants to become. The next time you pick up a skein, you won't have to wonder what to do with it, you'll know intuitively.