Japanese Craft Books

I have been having a lovely time over New Year, tucked up on the sofa under the new crocheted blanket next to Pooch, looking through a selection of Japanese Craft books. Not only do I have access to the usual bookshops (photos in this post) but also the Book-Off chain who do second hand books. And not only am I able to buy books and magazines BUT I have a library five minutes away which has a monthly quilting magazine you can read there AND a big craft section upstairs. I really am pretty lucky.

Those of you not familiar with japanese craft books, their usefulness lies in their extensive use of diagrams, charts and symbols. This makes them highly accessible to non-japanese speakers. There are a number of websites helping you understand them too. There is a brilliant collection of resources here and I have bought new books from Pomadour on Etsy before.

A few favourites from recent reads:

and this is the kind of instructions you get for the hexagon bag.

There are also usually templates either within the pages or on a fold out pattern sheet like you get with mainstream sewing magazines.

I know these books can be pretty expensive in the UK (actually they are expensive here too!) so I'm looking into setting up a little Etsy shop selling on the second hand books I can find that are at least half the price of the new ones and which are in good condition. If you'd like new copies I'd recommend Pomadour's shop, but otherwise watch this space for updates!