Such Sweet Hands

~~We indulge our cats and let them have the tiniest bit of milk left at the bottom of our cereal bowls. This means that the sound of a spoon clattering in an almost empty bowl calls them to sit and stare at the cereal eater, they don’t blink when they sit like this. Why am I telling you this? At this moment, I’m slowly eating a bowl of Kashi Strawberry Fields while working on this blog entry. Kal has been sitting at my side (unblinking) for what he considers to be too long to wait for that tiny bit of milk. He’s attempting to take matters into his own hands, standing on his back paws with his front paws on my desk, trying to see the cereal bowl. He is very concerned he’s not going to get his milk… ~~

I visited Kinokuniya in Little Tokyo for a Sunday Japanese Craft Book Happy Spectacular with my friend Bridgid. Bridgid is the kind of cool librarian who really keeps up on things and looks for cool stuff for the young adult readers set. She has a knitting group going and everything. And of course, she’s been curious to see if she can find an amigurumi book that would be appropriate for her library.

Bridgid and I had a good time catching up on each other’s lives while flipping through the books. We went through almost all of the craft books, I found so many inspiring things. I certainly got some ideas for an upcoming podcast. I poured over the amigurumi books and Ooohed and gushed over the cuteness. And don’t get me started on the way Japanese quilt books inspire my crochet thoughts…

In the end I only brought one book home with me. This book rocks. I love stitch pattern guides and this one has some combos I haven’t seen before. Each stitch pattern has a clear symbol guide. There is no need for language in this book, only some understanding of crochet. If you need explanation of a specific stitch symbol in one of the patterns, that symbol can be found in the back of the book alongside step by step illustrations. A variety of yarns are used to showcase the feel of different patterns and all of the yarns seem to be no thicker than a DK weight. It will be interesting to see how these patterns play out in thicker yarns.

The Book: ISBN 4-529-02890-9

And why don’t I visit Little Tokyo more often? That well of fantastic craft books not to mention all the other inspiring Japanese twists on my Los Angeles life. I feel so silly for not visiting for years. When we get back from London I plan to spend another lazy afternoon perusing the shops.