Let the past sleep, but let it sleep in the sweet embrace of Christ, and let us go on into the invincible future with Him. (Oswalt Chambers)

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Let The Stitching Fun Begin

Front of Japanese knitting stitch bookIf the beautiful, intricate stitch patterns available in Japanese are any indication, the Japanese are having more fun knitting than the English speaking world.

After seeing this book mentioned on Janet Szabo's website, I just had to try ordering from Amazon Japan.

Today it arrived and I'm so excited! The stitch patterns are unique and beautiful. This book doesn't waste any time with the simple stuff.

I only wish I could understand the words. Fortunately the patterns are charted and there isn't much text. All I need to do is figure out the chart symbols. It's going to be like a huge knitting brain teaser.


Lace sample from Japanese knitting stitch bookMost of the pages in the book are like the page on the right, showing a swatch and its chart.

There are a few beautiful sweaters pictured, but there are no patterns for them. They are just to display an example of the stitch patterns.


Cable ample from Japanese knitting stitch bookInterested?

Go to Amazon Japan and hit the "IN ENGLISH" tab at the top of the page. It isn't going to be as much English as you'd like, but it was enough English so I could complete the purchase.

The best way - maybe the only way - to search for this book is to enter the ISBN number in the search. 4-529-04176-X

All the prices are in yen. I don't think it's possible to order without a credit card.

Before confirming the order, I went to Google and did a yen to dollar conversion just to make sure I wasn't doing something budget breaking. When the charge showed up on the credit card, the total was 3,900 yen/$32.42. Very reasonable.

The book arrived DHL and took less than a week to get here.


If you order this book and are interested in working together to figure out some of the stitch symbols that aren't obvious, please email me.

If you have this book and can read Japanese, I would be ever so grateful to hear from you.

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