Owlishly

Japanese Craft Book-Embroidery one-point stitch hajimete no shishiyuu wampointo sutetsuchi 500 wan pointo asahi orijinaru ＡＳＡＨＩ ＯＲＩＧＩＮＡＬ ISBN 9784021904097

Well how's that for a long title?

So I have a couple of embroidery books that I've listed.  I'm finding out that while they're lovely and full of inspiration, I don't necessarily want to make anything from them.  I'm coming to the realization that I much prefer coming up with my own little drawings, especially since most of what I make is for my little ones anyway.

I just think the bug embroidery is "bee"youtiful! Can you tell I'm tired?  I do think it's lovely though.  And I'm nowhere near close to a bug fan in the first place.  If you'd like, you can click on the images to get to the photos at flickr and really see the detail nice and big.

I really like this one, of course I don't really have a book that I don't like because I usually am the only one doing the buying :)  How pretty is this redwork alphabet, I'm silly about liking fonts based on the M's, but I really like this one, the Z is really nice too.  Below is an example of what the actual pattern looks like, these are some pretty fun borders.

Anyway, I"m off to bed, we have a busy day with my little guy deciding if he's ready for vacation bible school!

another update- Japanese craft books

So it's silly for me to be up this late, but I wanted to get these uploaded before tomorrow morning, or this morning actually.  Anyway, I'll try to get images from books up individually, but for now, if you want to see the rest of the books that I'm listing at noon PST, you can check out my recent uploads over at Flickr. 

G'night!

update of sorts

Okay, so we ended up house sitting my parents home this weekend and I haven't been home at all to scan the rest of the books.  I'm going to try to finish that up tonight so that I can list them all tomorrow, let's say noon PST is when I'll be listing the books. 

Also, this weekend, I've been drawing a bunch of little kids to embroider on a Christmas gift for my own two little ones.  It's never to early to start, at least for me it isn't since I'm so horrible about doing things last minute. I think the embroidery bug also is a tad seasonal with me- I'm finding that I prefer working with lighter weight/cooler projects since it's become so hot.

I haven't been in much of a crocheting mood lately.  I'm still puttering away at the blanket for the flower pattern.  Since I changed the color that I'm doing for the petals, now the inner circle looks off with the color that I'm using.  I may redo that in a more subdued green color that matches the fiber content of the yarn that I'm using for the petals.  Also, for some reason the center is looking kind of smallish, but it's probably one of those things where I've been at it too long again.  It's kind of funny how these blankets suck all desire to crochet from my being :) 

I'm also doing a custom order for 2 little dolls made of thread to be a wedding cake topper- that should be interesting.  I'm still waiting on the thread to come in the mail, I couldn't find it in the colors that I needed anywhere.

Otherwise, we've have a very busy family weekend, enjoying friends and plenty of time spent playing & eating outdoors.

Japanese Craft Book- 13 digit ISBN 9784529044950 10 digit ISBN 4529044955 Children's Crochet Patterns 90 * 100 * 110 cm

Okay, this one is one of my favorites.  For some reason it's part of the Let's Knit Series, but it's all crochet patterns for sweet little kids.

How can you not want to make everything in this book! 

The little kiddies in this book are so sweet and endearing, I especially like the patterns for the boys, that's actually why I bought this book to begin with.

How cute are these little girls!

The blanket and slipper patterns are included.

These little boy patterns are SO endearing.

I know it's about the patterns, but aren't these images adorable?

I seriously wish I had time to make these all, they are so cute.  Dang it.  But I know that whoever ends up with this will make more clothes from the patterns than I would!

Japanese Craft Book- ISBN-10-4309280684 ISBN-13- 978-4309280684 shawl, stole, marguerite

How pretty are these?  I'd bought this book because I couldn't stand how beautiful all the patterns are, but it's one of those things where these type of patterns just don't fit into my lifestyle right now.  I wouldn't want my little ones getting a hold of these if I did actually make anything from this book.  Nor would I have anything to wear these too since most days are jeans/khakis and t-shirts :)

This book includes knit & crochet patterns

This first pattern shown is a knitting pattern.

All the yarn used in these projects seems so light and airy, they drape so beautifully.

I wish I had occasion to make and wear some of the things in this book.

I always think that I have so much more time to make things like this than I actually do. I suppose that when my little ones get older I can get around to spending time making beautiful things regularly, but for now I guess it's all going to have to be eye candy for me.

Japanese Craft Book- 10 digit ISBN 4021904050 13 digit ISBN 978-4021904059 Japanese Baby sweaters and more Asahi Original Collection

This is one that I bought to make the pretty coat on the front cover, but then ended up never getting to it in time.  Now my little girl is too big, and the only thing I ever sort of made was the little capelet for my niece, and then ended up majorly modifying the pattern to only include the lacy part of the pattern.

Front cover

contents

even more contents

bonnet & booties

Don't you love the aesthetic of these books, they're all so pretty.  The patterns are for boys and girls, and seem like they'd be fairly quick to make.  I think the charts help out so much with all of these books, they make the patterns so simple to understand.

Japanese Crochet Pattern Book- 10 digit ISBN 4861912016 13 digit ISBN 9784861912016 Desserts and Food theme- keito no tei taimu fujita tomoko no nitsuto ru mu- 毛糸のティータイム

Another book that I couldn't wait to get & drooled over every time I saw projects made from it, and then opened only a smattering of times to admire but never ever make anything from. Nuts! These are really fantastic projects.
 
Yum!- what a perfect front cover.

Back cover

a lovely "pear" of ideas :)

I really wanted to make this

an apple coin purse

pattern example.

This one is definitely one of the most beautiful crocheted fruit/food books I've ever seen, I wish I had time & the inclination to actually make some of these projects.

Japanese Craft Books- 10 digit ISBN 4391117584 13 digit ISBN 978-4391117585 Japanese Felt Mascots- tenuide tsukuru doubutsu masukotto chiisana tomodachi 190 ten

Okay, so what I think I'm going to do is use the isbn # (and the actual titles if I have them) as the title for each post and do one post per book, that way it's easier to categorize.  In no particular order, this post and the following 10 or so, are the books that I'm going to be listing for sale on Etsy as part of my decluttering/passing really neat books on to someone who'll actually use them kick :)

This one's fun because it reads from right to left.  This includes patterns and instructions for all of the little felt cuties on the cover, front & back.  I've seen them come to fruition on a bunch of different blogs and I always adore them, but for some reason I'm never especially compelled to make any of them. My son loves all the little mascots in this book, but he prefers just looking at it, and doesn't really want me to actually make any of them for him.  They are super cute aren't they?  I especially love the mallard!

front

 

back

materials & supplies

how to

super cute examples of what you can make

I think one of the bad things about actually doing this and spending time with the books trying to decide which pages best represent the book as a whole is that I'm remembering why I bought these in the first place!  I'm committed to pass them on though so I'd appreciate all the help I can get with that ;) Thanks.

June 2008- SO not a fan of you

This month is just really taking the wind out of my sails big time.  There just seems to be one thing right after the other happening and I haven't had much time to crochet/embroider and I think it's effecting (affecting- I never remember) me.  The distressing news that I'd mentioned at the beginning of the month has just played such a large part in our lives.  The little boy that I'd mentioned, my son's friend & my sister & brother-in-law's nephew passed away last week and my little boy is coping well at times, and not so well at others, as are we.

In my Japanese craft book related news, in light of the fact that the services are going to be on the day I'd planned on listing my books, I'm changing the date that I'll be doing that.  As usual, I plan on getting some images up here soon.  I have been scanning the covers and random pages as time permits, but I've been pretty lax about buckling down and doing all of them.  I think I have at least 10 that I'll be listing.  I'm going to list them on Etsy on July 7th now.

Anyway, I just wanted to give a bit of an update, I swear the next post will be lighter fare!

What do you like about your favorite craft books?

I'm wondering. I like when they lay down flat, you know, when they're spiral bound.  That's not the only thing, but it's important to me.  I'd been thinking about this for a couple of days, I don't know why.  My mind just seems drawn to the qualities of a book which make it appealing to me.

I really enjoy the Japanese craft books, though I have absolutely no knowledge of the language.  I like the aesthetic and the sparsity.  I prefer pattern diagrams anyway; for some reason, every time I try reading patterns I usually get lost or end up confusing myself if it's a long round/row.  It's a lot easier for me to find my place when I can just look at a diagram.

If it's a pattern book, I like all the patterns to be at the front of the book, with all the basic stuff at the back. Of course, I don't think it's too much to ask to have illustrations that show left handed directions too, I mean the written directions could be changed to something a little generic like "primary hand" or "hand with hook" instead of always right hand. But maybe that's just me.  I just don't understand why with a craft that is essentially dependent on your handedness, why those directions aren't written for both. 

Colored photographs are definitely a must, at least for the finished item/garment/article.  I like when there are close up images, as well, I don't necessarily need photos of every step of the pattern, unless it's sort of tricky, but I do like to see at least front & back of what I'm going to be making.

Anyway, this is getting pretty wordy & I have some things to work on for my little girl's birthday party on Sunday.  So what do you think- what do you like craft books to have included for them to make the top of your list?