Pattern Books

Here are the two stitch pattern books I use most frequently. I've used them to learn new stitches by making swatches out of cotton yarn.... I bought the blue book in 1994, several months after arriving in Japan. There was a nice department store downtown with a nice knitting and sewing section. It had copies of all of the books in this series. I bought the second book (1000 Moyouhen) when it came out in 1996. I had to special order it from a bookstore that was about 30 minutes away from my apartment by bicycle. I remember ordering the book in early March. My father died unexpectedly in mid-march of that year. When I returned, I had a call that the book had come in. I remember biking out there with my husband and a couple friends the Sunday after we returned from America. I felt like I was in a daze after all that happened. That trip out to the bookstore was the first thing I enjoyed doing after returning to Japan. It made me feel a little hopeful again.

My mother-in-law retired this January. She saw the 1000 Moyouhen book and loved the patterns, so we ordered one for her too. We're planning to make sampler afghans out of some of the patterns in there and give them to family members (if we ever find the extra time!)

Well, that's about all for now...