I bought this book a few weeks ago, and finished my first read-through this week.

It’s a really good book with lots of information about the fibre sources for yarn, and common blends and how they behave when knitted. It also goes in to the spin of the yarn (I have to re-read that bit I’m still not sure what the difference is between woolen spun and worsted spun) and how the number of plies affects the knit fabric. Sadly crochet isn’t specifically covered although there is a lot that applies to both crafts.

There’s some good little tidbits that explain certain things. For example, I’d seen on several message boards that alpaca can be really uneven in stocking stitch. Clara Parkes explains that happens because the alpaca fibres are so smooth, and suggests incorporating some textured stitches in to a project using pure alpaca to offset this.

The whole section on ‘camelids’ (camel, alpaca, llama) interested me a lot and I now want to try llama and camel – I might just have to buy some fleece artist camelspin!

There are some great projects in here, my favourite being the snail mittens from Adrian Bizilla of Hello Yarn (she also designed ‘we might be pirates’. The mittens are just too cute! I also like Norah Gaughan’s cable wrap cardi. The neckline is a little too high for my liking, but I could always try to change it.

I even have a couple of things in stash that I could use for the mittens. I’d like to be able to make them child-sized so I could make a pair for my 6 year old sister-in-law – but they’d have to be pink.