Omote Ami

I spent much of Saturday morning looking for Christmas and birthday presents. More looking than actual buying as it turns out. It was hot and humid, I was tired and my back was aching, the stores were manic busy... If you've tried our Southern Hemisphere summertime Christmas shopping, I think you know the drill.

So after I had bought a birthday present for Mikey (the lovely ex) and a couple of other Christmas gifts, I decided to stave off a mini meltdown with some quality you know what?, it's all about ME time. So I headed into the Japanese language section of Books Kinokuniya on the hunt for Japanese craft and knitting books.

Oh trust me, the lure of the Japanese knitting book cannot be understated. You may scoff, but there is a real design sensibility to modern Japanese knitting that I really like. The patterns aren't neccessarily any more complicated, in fact they're often quite simple, but the choice of yarns and great details make them something special. Plus the styling of the books are always spot on.

Given that even the best knitting books are frequently peppered with the odd piece of hideous, a knitting book for just over $20 with only one thing in it that you wouldn't wear, well that's pretty good value for money. (And yes, it's the piece on the cover that's my least favourite.) Especially when the majority of men's patterns are so frequently very dull, or tricksy and naff beyond belief.




So this, and another book about various cool knitting techniques, were my little presents to me from Santa. He was just somewhat earlier than normal this year.

[If you're interested to see what's inside the book, go to this page and click the button on the ride sidebar that looks like this:
It'll launch a Flash browser that lets you flick through all that pages. Neat.]