I asked my mom during her recent trip to Taipei if she could bring back for me any "Japanese knitting books". I'm currently on a anything-Japanese craze. The above is what she returned with. A book of 300 mouth-watering stitch patterns, kawaii!!!! with an illustrated section in the back that explains each stitch used in the book. I can't read Japanese but I don't need to. As with all Japanese books the illustrations are simple and clear, easy on the eye, and just fun to look at.

I flipped through the book slowly, savoring each delicious page and then when it was over, I was like, "More? Are there more? Did you get me more?" And she said there was so much Japanese craft books at the mall bookstore she didn't know what I would want. DUH ALL OF THEM. I mean sure you've never seen me sew, but I want all the sewing books, so I can think I'll make a lifetime supply of cute aprons and tea cozies and hand puppets and totebags. Mostly I just want to look at the pretty pictures.

The times I've gone to Taipei I didn't think to look for Japanese craft books, but apparently one of the malls (SOGO, fyi) has an entire floor dedicated to nothing but. Sob. I want them all, I want them all now.

I have two balls of KSH in Dewberry - the free gift for joining Rowan International (yay!) - and I'm thinking of making a scarf or shawl in one of those patterns in the picture. There are just so many possibilities really, I don't know where to begin.

Hey hey! It's that time of year for...

...paperwhites! Aside from leaf-peeping, forcing paperwhite bulbs is my favorite fall activity. I have several bags of these, and just after a few days of securing a group in a shallow bowl of rocks and seaglass and water, these little babies have started to sprout roots. See? Once the roots take hold they start growing rapidly. Easy as pie. I plan on forcing another set in a few weeks so that I'll have an entire season of flowering paperwhites. They smell absolutely amazing.

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