Interweave Knits' WebWatch

This issue's column is about one of my personal favorite aspects of knitting...how the Japanese do it. I suppose what's most surprising is not that their approach to pattern writing is different from most of the world, but that their approach is so unique. That kind of stuff fascinates me.

But wait...let's go to the source: The Basics of Japanese Knitting. It's worth printing out, reading and saving. It will open doors to you, to patterns you couldn't read before, and to a whole new way of thinking about knitting.

And now the rest of the links:

Knit Japan -- a site focusing on Japanese knitting patterns, based out of the UK.

- Puppy yarn

- rather rough website forNoro yarn.

- Tezukuritown ["tezukuri" means "handmade" in Japanese].

- Crafting Japanese blog -- handy blog that shows Japanese crafting books including their ISBN numbers [you'll need these if you're going to order any of them from....]

- Amazon Japan. But how do you order from a mostly Japanese website?

- You read this website. With the information you'll find here, you can quite simply order any book from Amazon Japan. The last time I had a bad cold, I read this tutorial and ordered quite a few delicious Japanese knitting books with no trouble. They arrived to my home in Canada within a month.

- An easier-still way to order Japanese books, toys and other cool stuff is to visit Yes Asia. It's a little more expensive, but it's very friendly to non-Japanese speake- rs. Choose the country you live in and it customizes the site for you. Shipping is slowish, but not unbearably so.

- Personally, I love visiting Kinokuniya in person [they have stores in the US in Manhattan and all over the west coast]. It's a real treat to be able to page through each book before you choose it. But they also offer an online ordering service. It's easiest if you know the ISBN before you order. Otherwise, use the English search and punch in a keyword or two and cross your fingers.

Enjoy!

Posted 7:03 AM PST