Japanese Knitting Books and New Pattern for January
For a while now I’ve been meaning to look into Japanese knitting patterns and I was reminded of this when I stumbled upon a Japanese pattern group on Ravelry the other day. I read some of the posts and ended up ordering 2 pattern books from Saucy Louise. She lives on a US base in Japan and ships via US mail, so I’ve already received my books! I got the Autumn & Winter 2006-2007 issue of the Let’s Knit series, and a stitch dictionary with 500 stitch patterns. I’ve spent less than 60 seconds flipping through them so far, and I can tell I’ll be very inspired by them. It’s a refreshing change of pace to see knitting through the eyes of another culture, especially the Japanese. I only wish I had been a knitter when I lived in Tokyo (from 1985-1990). I miss Japan so much it’s not even funny. I regularly have dreams about being in Tokyo again, with random dream sequences thrown in. Lately it’s always been a dream that involves me wandering around in my old familiar neighborhood there, but not being able to find my way to my apartment. Another one involves my landlord and his family — in this dream the kids are grown (they were around 10 or so when I lived there) and everyone speaks English and we’re all great friends. I’m sure these dreams stem from my desire to go back for a visit, but as long as the dollar-yen exchange rate stays where it is now I’m not very likely to get over there anytime soon. So maybe getting these Japanese pattern books will help me get my Japan-fix in the meantime.
Before I can sit down with a cup of coffee and browse my new books though, I need to take care of some business. I’ve got an order to ship to Webs — this is their first order from me and I’m so excited they’ll be carrying Knitting Matters patterns. My patterns are now being sold in 4 shops in 3 states so I’m making progress. Slow but sure.
I also must make myself finish Christmas shopping asap. I just do not feel like doing it this year. Seriously. I. do. not. There’s the list-making, then the shopping, then the wrapping, then the traveling…. Then the gifts are torn open and it’s all over in a couple of hours. I wish it could be more about just spending time with family and less about the gifts, but who am I to try to overcome such deeply-ingrained cultural expectations and traditions? (I’m one of those people who’d like to give everyone compact fluorescent bulbs as gifts, and I actually might have done that for some people, until I read an article in some newspaper about how weird and uncool that would be perceived to be. Whew! Saved me from myself this time!)
Oh, I almost forgot about the new pattern teaser….here it is:
It’s called Radiance, and will be published in January as the first Knitting Matters pattern of 2008. The yarn is Trendsetter Tonalita and it is awesome! If you’re not already signed up for my monthly newsletter, go here to make sure you get new pattern news directly in your mailbox.
Tags: Christmas, Designing, Japanese patterns
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December 10, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Kim,
I enjoyed reading about your Japan dreams…and have been perusing Japanese knitting sites myself recently. It really is too bad you didn’t knit back them. Think of how much information you could have amassed at your very fingertips!
Sharon