In the beginning, the drawings are dark and sooty. The fabulous richly-drawn illustrations by Jon Klassen are the perfect complement to Mac Barnett's text. In a rage, he tosses the box out the window into the sea, and in time, of course, it floats right back to its rightful owner, Annabelle. But once he's got it, things don't go quite as he'd hoped when he opens the box, it is empty. When she declines his offer, he takes matters into his own greedy hands and hires robbers to steal the box. even ten million dollars in exchange for her box of yarn. One day, a rich and powerful archduke arrives and offers Annabelle one million, two million. The story of Annabelle and her never-ending yarn travels quickly, and many people from around the world come to meet her and see her work for themselves.

In fact, Annabelle's colorful yarn seems to be never-ending she knits and knits and knits until her entire town and all the people in it are adorned with her colorful creations, and yet she still has extra yarn. When her colorful sweater proves to be a distraction in school, she knits one for every one of her classmates,and her teacher. When a boy in the town laughs at Annabelle and her dog, saying they look ridiculous, Annabelle can see that he is jealous, and she knits him a sweater, too. When she's finished with that, she is surprised to see that she still has extra yarn.

When she's finished, she finds she has extra yarn and decides to knit one for her dog. One day, she stumbles upon a small box of colorful yarn, and she decides to knit herself a sweater. Annabelle lives in a cold, colorless town where everything is covered with snow and soot.

Extra yarn