PlanetJune

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I just went to my mailbox, and look what I found inside (sorry about the photo quality; the sun is not cooperating today):

It’s a new book, Amigurumi Animals by Annie Obaachan! The book is very cute, and has lots of tips for how to design and make amigurumi:

It includes a menagerie of patterns you can make (with both written and charted instructions):

In the back is a gallery of amigurumi artists, and guess who has a full-page spread?

Three large pictures, and a little blurb about me and PlanetJune.com. What really cracked me up, though, is I even made it into the index

If you’re an amigurumi beginner, you could do a lot worse than picking up Amigurumi Animals (and not just to look at my photos!)

Kari and I had a great time in Chicago. Kari made this lovely soft fleece tree scarf for me, accessorized with a Crafty Ginger tsumami kanzashi flower snap - yay! She also gave me some gorgeous grey fuzzy yarn, which I know I’ll be able to make good use of

We went to the Sanseido bookstore in the Mitsuwa Japanese marketplace . If you’re in Chicago I highly recommend you check it out if you love Japanese craft books (and who doesn’t?) - they had a wide selection and the prices were very reasonable. I managed to restrict myself to buying three:

ISBN 9784529039017 (cute stuffed toy patterns)

ISBN 4277490239 (crochet motifs)

ISBN 9784277490405 (pretty patchwork)

Beautiful, inspirational books! And all 3 for only $20

I have been coveting Japanese craft books for months, and trying to decide which of the books at Crafting Japanese. I like best. There’s something about the Japanese designs that really appeals to me. I finally saw the one craft book that I couldn’t resist - those ducks on the front cover are so cute! I bought it from a Japanese seller on eBay but found out later when I had the book and the ISBN that it’s also available (more cheaply) from amazon.co.jp.

The book seems to be called “chirimen shugei” which I believe means “chirimen handicrafts”. Chirimen is the type of textured fabric that the patterns use - anyone know where I can find some? In Canada especially?

The patterns are a mix of lovely bags, Japanese dolls, and cute animals and fruit with little pouches inside. The book comes with a pullout of full-size paper patterns.

ISBN 4140311002

Front cover

Back cover

Sample page

It all looks so lovely! I can’t wait to get started making something from the book. I just need to find some suitable fabric.

I do love a bargain - I just picked up the 2007 Crochet Pattern-a-Day calendar at 50% off! I only just resisted buying Origami-a-day and Sudoku-a-day as well…

Lots of inspiration in here, and it’s kind of making me want to submit a pattern for next year’s calendar, although that may be a bit ambitious with only 3 weeks until the submission deadline… I’ll think about it, and if I don’t make the deadline, I’ll have plenty of time to design something for the 2009 calendar!