This is the spinning book every spinner will rush out and buy this fall. This book doesn't teach you to spin -- it teaches you the potential of your spinning. Sarah Anderson guides spinners through the making of 80 different yarns, each building on the techniques of the yarn before it. The writing style is concise and at the same time thorough and inspiring - I wanted to spin every single yarn I read about the second I finished reading. Beyond the making of yarns, Sarah reminds spinners of the basics: twist and balance, woolen vs. worsted, washing fleece and an excellent section on fiber prep carding (hand and drum) and combing. Throughout the book, she talks about a sock knitting experiment she carried out while writing this book - what yarn structure is the best for socks? You'll have to read it to find out. There are tips scattered through the book that focus on tricky bits of some of the yarn structures and invaluable tips for knitting with different types of yarns.

The book is filled with photographs, more than I think I've seen in any other spinning book - excellent process photos, beautiful project photos and lots of inspirational photos. It's wonderful to see a book take the space to satiate visual learners. This isn't a book for the most beginning of spinners, but it could be a second spinning book. There is little discussion of how different breeds affect the yarn spun, but that's a book in itself. The joy in this book is the instruction of 80 yarns spinners now have at their fingertips. What the Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting pattern books are to knitters, The Spinner's Book of Yarn Designs will be to spinners.