Author: Clara Parkes
Publisher: Potter Craft
ISBN: 0307586987
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 258
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Book Description
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.
Author: Clara Parkes
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
ISBN: 9780307352170
Category : Knitting
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
In this complete guide to wool, passionate wool expert Parkes translates the vast world of sheep and their wool into the language and context of knitting.
Author: Clara Parkes
Publisher: Potter Craft
ISBN: 0307586804
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Book Description
A sock is a work of wonder. No other knitted garment has as many structural demands or endures as much wear and tear. The humble sock must defy gravity, suffer the confines of our shoes, and endure being trampled on all day long. All too often, the root cause of a sock's triumph or failure is the yarn itself. In The Knitter’s Book of Socks, Clara Parkes shows you how to knit socks from yarn up, following the sock yarn life cycle from its foundations to its final moments on a proud foot. By understanding a sock's basic needs—elasticity, strength, and moisture management—you’ll learn how to play with these tools like building blocks, confidently combining fiber, twist, ply, pattern, and clever stitch tricks to construct your perfect pair of socks. To help put these principles into practice, The Knitter’s Book of Socks also offers 20 fresh, original patterns from today’s sock-design luminaries, including Cookie A, Cat Bordhi, Ann Budd, Nancy Bush, Anne Hanson, and Melissa Morgan-Oakes. The socks presented here run the gamut from simple knit-and-purl combinations suitable for beginners to innovative designs with lush colorwork, swirling cables, and delicate lace. Understanding the elements of yarn is the first step on every successful sock knitting journey. With this book as your guide, you’ll learn how to make any sock yarn shine and love every pair of socks you knit.
Author: Ann Hood
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393239497
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
A collection of essays about the transformative power of knitting from 27 contemporary authors, including Ann Patchett, Barbara Kingsolver, John Dufresne, and Joyce Maynard.
Author: Clara Parkes
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1683351622
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 182
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Book Description
In this anthology from the author of The Yarn Whisperer, twenty-one devoted knitters examine a subject that is irresistible to us all: the yarn stash. Anyone with a passion has a stash, whether it is a collection of books or enough yarn to exceed several life expectancies. With her trademark wit, Clara Parkes brings together fascinating stories from all facets of stash-keeping and knitting life—from KonMari minimalist to joyous collector, designer to dyer, spinner to social worker, scholar to sheep farmer. Whether the yarn stash is muse, memento, creative companion, career guide, or lifeline in tough times, these deeply engaging stories take a fascinating look at why we collect, what we cherish, and how we let go. Contributors include New York Times–bestselling authors Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Debbie Stoller, Meg Swansen and Franklin Habit, Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner, Adrienne Martini, and a host of others. Named one of the top ten lifestyle books for fall 2017 by Publisher’s Weekly.
Author: Toby Roxane Barna
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0811768562
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 113
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Book Description
Drawn to a beautiful, unique yarn, but not sure what to do with it? Look no further. Gorgeous hand-dyed, variegated, self-striping, speckled, and other fun yarns abound for the knitter today, but sometimes the color variations and changes can make it difficult to find patterns that allow the yarn to shine. Oftentimes, the simpler the pattern, the more the yarn gets to take center stage. With this in mind, Toby designed all of the pieces in this book--hats, shawls, mittens, sweaters, and more--to let the yarn be the main feature. The 21 designs are written at a level for the motivated knitter who has made a scarf or two and is ready to move on to something a little more interesting and unique. Sidebars with photos and notes explain techniques that may be unfamiliar to beginners so that you can fearlessly make any piece. More experienced knitters can relax into these patterns and enjoy their showcase yarn as it slides along their needles and becomes a masterpiece of color.
Author: Debbie Bliss
Publisher: Lark
ISBN: 9781454709268
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
A knitting reference for beginners as well as experienced knitters.
Author: Clara Parkes
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 9781617690020
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Stockinette, ribbing, cables, even the humble yarn over can instantly evoke places, times, people, conversations, all those poignant moments that we've tucked away in our memory banks. Over time, those stitches form a map of our lives. --From the preface In The Yarn Whisperer: Reflections on a Life in Knitting, renowned knitter and author Clara Parkes ponders the roles knitting plays in her life via 22 captivating, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny essays. Recounting tales of childhood and adulthood, family, friends, adventure, privacy, disappointment, love, and celebration, she hits upon the universal truths that drive knitters to create and explores the ways in which knitting can be looked at as a metaphor for so many other things. Put simply, "No matter how perfect any one sweater may be, it's only human to crave another. And another, and another."
Author: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN: 0740789015
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 230
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Book Description
One woman shares hilarious personal stories of her obsession, frustration, reflection, and fun with knitting. An obsessed knitter who can’t seem to put the needles down, author Stephanie Pearl-McPhee reveals the tangled and sometimes maniacal path of her knitting triumphs and disasters in Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter. Sharing both humorous and poignant tales of knitting escapades, such as fleeing from a yarn-thieving squirrel, dismantling a car to find a vital needle, and what it feels like to wrap a newborn baby in the work of your own hands. Yarn Harlot exposes the extreme sport of knitting, and adventure that can be fulfilling, exasperating, and wickedly funny. From the moment Stephanie’s family discovers that she has taken to storing yarn in the piano to her attempts to foist knitted socks on a friend with a wool “allergy,” Yarn Harlot looks at knitting with humor, insight, and sympathy for the obsessed. “Stephanie Pearl-McPhee turns both typical and unique knitting experiences into very funny and articulate prose.” —Meg Swansen, Schoolhouse Press “An intimate view of the passionate knitter’s psyche: a transport of hilarity for knitters and the knitted-for; I laughed until my stitches fell helplessly from my needles!”—Lucy Neatby, author of Cool Socks Warm Feet “A sort of David Sedaris-like take on knitting—laugh-out-loud funny most of the time and poignantly reflective when it’s not cracking you up.” —Library Journal
Author: Clara Parkes
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1613129394
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 225
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Book Description
The renowned knitter and author of The Yarn Whisperer spins tales of a creative life enriched by world travel in this New York Times–bestselling memoir. In Knitlandia, Parkes invite readers and devoted crafters on excursions to be savored, through seventeen of her most memorable journeys across the globe. Her knitting adventures span from the fjords of Iceland to a cozy yarn shop in Paris’s thirteenth arrondissement. Also known for her PBS television appearances and hugely popular line of small-batch handcrafted yarns, Parkes weaves her personal blend of wisdom and humor into this eloquently volume that is part personal travel narrative and part cultural history, touching the heart of what it means to live creatively.
