I'd heard several times through the the knitters' rumor mill that a Japanese supermarket in Beaverton (one town over from where I live) has a bookstore in back that includes a good selection of knitting books. I've been to this particular market several times, but never noticed the bookstore. When an urge for sushi struck my husband a few days ago, I learned that the rumor is true.
The store is called Uwajimaya and there are also a couple of locations in Washington. The bookstore, however, I think is a separate entity. It has a different name, although for the life of me I can't remember what it is or find the receipt.
The books are, of course, in Japanese, but I was most interested in the elusive Japanese stitch dictionaries that I've heard so much about. As it turned out, they had quite a few crochet stitch dictionaries but only two knitting stitch dictionaries in stock. One was devoted to cables and the other was actually half and half crochet and knit, with a bit of everything. Although the cable book looked really interesting, I don't knit cables all that often and so I found it difficult to justify shelling out $33. I settled for the other book.
Since the stitches are charted, I figure it won't matter that the text is in Japanese (despite the English cover). My husband, of course, had to point out that many of the charts have asterisks that refer to notes at the bottom written in Japanese. I've chosen to assume those aren't important.
I love the type on the cover title. Here it is in close-up (please excuse my over-exposed photo):
As I type this, it reminds me that I still haven't gotten through the spindling book I recently purchased. I read about halfway through in the first day or two I got it and then promptly set it aside and forgot it. Off to hunt for that now. Great day to all!
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2 comments:
Oh, you'll have fun with the Japanese stitches. They're so beautiful. One of my favorite blogs is Ishi Knits. I'd love to take it up, but I'm not as brave as you are!
Keep a mental note in your head for whenever you are over near Uwajimaya of which book you purchased. *grin* I bought 2 this summer - and have gone in periodically as they restock pretty regularily - but never remember which 2 I originally bought! (Oh and a tip - look up high and down low on the shelves as sometimes they are sorted in a bit of a jumble to my english only eyes.) The prices are $20 less or so than the same books are going for at Knit Purl. 'Sides, can't beat the fresh fare in the deli for lunch!
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