Japanese Knitting: Patterns for Sweaters, Scarves and More: Knits and crochets for experienced needle crafters

This is a translation of a pattern book originally published in Japanese, and the patterns are presented in the Japanese style, with some Western modifications. The included patterns are pretty adorable; although, as the book cover points out, these are patterns for “experienced needle crafters.” The patterns are presented only in charts; they’re not written out. As a person who quavers in the presence of charts, nothing could have prepared me for the visual onslaught that awaited me in these innocuous-seeming pages. And the book definitely works up a reader’s sense of dread–it begins by noting that you must read through the introduction before proceeding. And then, in a tiny font whose tinyness seems somehow mocking, the introduction runs you through a gamut of notes, caveats, and byzantine page-number references. I’m pretty sure reading it imploded some of my brain cells. But in spite of all the warnings, I was in no way prepared for what was to come. When I ventured past the introduction and the gallery of finished products modeled by a woman who looked alternately depressed and distraught, the intricate mandala that was the first chart gave me a heart palpitation. To say it was blinding would be…accurate. And then there’s the…other thing that comes along with each malicious chart. I guess the thing could be described as a diagram. It’s littered with so many notes, vectors, arrows, and twisting lines that I had the distinct impression it was screaming obscenities at me.

As a chart-phobic intermediate knitter, I am, perhaps, not the imagined audience for this book. If very small, visually bellicose charts and diagrams don’t make you regret your life, this book does have 23 pretty cute designs.