Embroidery by Takashi Iwasaki

The artist is a Canadian of Japanese descent. More of his works here. He is featured in the current issue of Selvedge. Amazing work. And it sort of updates Constance Howard's medium of choice by throwing in images reminiscent of Alexander Calder's sculptures and mobiles while using Iwasaki's own palette of colors. Wow!

Delightful Handspun

This sweater was spun and knit by a Japanese blogger, musktenjin0715.

It looks like an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern, but this one was designed by Naganasu of Witch's Knitting Room. Using top-down knitting, Naganasu employed short rows to have a deeper neckline in front. See comparison in this photo.


The pattern is written in Japanese AND English (Yay!) The patterns are in two versions: Short Row and Simple

By the way, Musktenjin's buttons were handmade.

Darn It!

I ordered this book (ISBN-10: 4894446561 ) from amazon.co.jp thinking that it was a how-to craft book.

And I thought that it would be a nice companion piece to this book (ISBN-10: 4579111273) on darning (read review by fluffbuff here):

I was a bit disappointed to learn upon receiving my order that the book is only a guide to cool shops in Japan. However, through the book I discovered this online shop called tarco which is a great source of crafting inspiration.

See samples here: