Around and Around

I am a fickle knitter, no question about it. I have abandoned all current WIPs for a new love. Queso sabato scorso, dopo la mia clase italiana, I wandered up to Little Osaka to check out Kinokuniya. It was quite a trek, up Geary Street, uphill, to the store. Geary is not in the greatest neighborhood(s). Neither is Webster, which is where the actual street address of the store maps to. Not a scary place to be driving about, per se, but it didn't feel that good to be walking around, alone, as a woman, in that part of the city. I have never been happier to see crowds on tourists (on my trek back) in all my life.

The store, too, was somewhat disappointing. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I get the impression that the store in Rockefeller Center is a huge megastore. This one is about a quarter the size of your average Borders or Barnes & Noble. It was in an interesting mini-mall of sorts, with a bunch of different Japanese stores and eateries. The craft books were in a tiny stand alone section shared with the cooking books. (Gosh, now that would be an adventure!) I'm not saying it wasn't an impressive number of books, nearly all of which were in Japanese. My expectations were high though - a little too high I guess. (Humph - I just read that, at least at the Rockefeller Center store, the really good books are in the hobby/fashion section, NOT the craft section. Is this true? Does anyone know if that's the case at the SF store?) Anyway, nevertheless, after fighting my way to the front of the section (the place was crowded, but it was a Saturday after all...) I managed to snag this gem:


The book is called... ok, I don't know what the book is called because I don't actually read Japanese. Not one word. But the cover does say " Natural Bag & Goods, Andaria, Linen, Organic Cotton", and it is part of the "Heart Warming Life Series". Wait - here it is, over at Amazon.co.jp! This might not work though if the Japanese character set is not loaded on your computer. Mine apparently is (thank you Apple!) Also - thank god for ISBNs.

I'm not sure what andaria is (any guesses?) but the projects all seem to be made of natural, non-wool materials, including things like twine and raffia, and, of course, cotton. And, it's actually a crochet book! Funny thing - knitting and crochet in Japanese patterns seem to both be translated as "knitting". I figured it would be easier for me to figure out crochet than knitting, especially knitting garments, with the "at the same time" and complicated shaping that can occur. The crochet patterns are all very well charted out, complete with little diagrams, and none of the projects seem so difficult that I couldn't just wing it if I had to. And the photography is stylish - kind of like Rowan in that it's almost worth the price of admission just to see the show, even if you don't understand what the show is about! :)

I am especially enamored with the cover project - what a sweet little bag! There are quite a few interesting pieces in the book, which I'm betting you'll be seeing around here sooner or later. But, I thought something a little more simple was in order to start things off:

Don't judge, I happened to have it on hand.
Already I am winging it, since, although there is a gauge given I can't exactly read it.
Early results are promising.
Now, how do I add Japanese patterns to Raverly?

ETA: I have found 2 other sources for Japanese knitting books, if anyone is interested: Superbuzzy has some pretty nice offerings, and also sells way cute Japanese fabrics and other stuff. YesAsia.com also has some knitting books, though there doesn't seem to be a knitting or needlework category in the book section as far as I can tell.

posted by Carrie @ 12:11 AM