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Japanese Craft Books vs. US Craft Books: your thoughts?

A great post and discuss on craft publishing… I added my comments as well. Head on over and join the conversation!

Some of my favorite craft books are my Japanese ones. Granted, I have yet to make something from them, but I look over them (note that I didn’t say I read them since I can’t read Japanese) often and the joy of the experience seems to greatly surpass my feelings for most (but clearly not all) other craft books in my collection. I think the illustrative quality to them also makes it more visually appealing to browse while pattern books here tend to be full of words and not nearly as visually appealing. Even knitting patterns that are fully charted in Japanese books makes it possible for you to get a quick review of the pattern details etc without having to spend the time reading text line by line. On top of which, the text isn’t even clear and understandable and requires the knitter to translate it any way. (Otherwise, why the need to even put out books like: Knitspeak: An A to Z Guide to the Language of Knitting Patterns)

Of course, I’m not saying that charted symbols do not require translation into executable instructions, but they do have a illustrative quality showing you lace, or cable patterns without needing to know how to execute, you’ll know what it will look like.

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