I have to admit, yarn shopping takes a back seat when the alternatives include visiting Kinkaku-ji.

On our last day in Japan, my mother-in-law took us to Yuzawaya. Check out the knitting sheep logo!

Yuzawaya isn’t so much a yarn shop as a craft department store. Japanese department stores are somewhat legendary for their size and the range of services they offer and Yuzawaya fit the bill. The basement was food, as is traditional for a depato. First floor was fabric and floral arranging. Yarn was on the second floor. Yarn, notions, spinning wheels, and knitting machines. And random breads and bake mixes.

I browse yarn with a future knitter of Japan…

…and stop to ponder this pink crocheted bag. The pattern is free with purchase of yarn!

What color shall I make the bag? Surely not this hideous yellow I am holding.

If you look right above my head, you can glimpse a couple spinning wheels on display. (And that’s my mother-in-law in the background.)

Oh look! Wall of Noro! Most of the yarn in the store was sold by the bag and the Noro was no different. I try to think of a yarn shop in the US where I could walk in a buy a nicely-packed bag of Noro, instead of having to dig through a bin looking for matching dye lots.

I encounter a British Sheep Breeds poster and am taken in by some kind of longwool.

The haul was ultimately small, as I do not yet own a Mary-Poppins-style suitcase. But I came away with both yarn and books:

Clockwise from top left we have: an amigurumi book of crazy adorableness (of course), Tebukuro & Handowoma (gloves and handwarmers), Kantan Nitto-wadorobu (easy knit wardrobe), and the pattern and supplies for the pink crocheted bag I was looking at.

I’ll probably post more in-depth commentary on each book, but I did notice that all three books are contain both knit and crochet, and the projects in the “Easy Knit Wardrobe” book are quite a bit more difficult than the average easy knits book in Barnes & Noble. I bet there are cultural differences in the exposure to, and the value of craft that are well worth exploring. Plus it will give me a chance to practice my Japanese!

It’s a common theme for most of us, I think. We craft. We perceive just how huge the crafting industry is. And…nobody else gets it.

But I found an unlikely craft appreciator on our way back from our trip.

We were tired. Due to gross airline incompetence, we were over twelve hours delayed in getting home (they did put us up in a hotel overnight, but not without quite a bit of haranguing). I was half asleep aboard a Super Shuttle and the driver and another passenger were having a conversation about what it’s like to be a shuttle driver.

“You can make some good money from now until April. I make 30 or 40 grand in the spring alone, but the rest of the year, it’s slow.

“It’s not the holidays; people traveling for the holidays, that’s nothing to us. It’s the conventions, see. Houston is a big convention city and that’s when you can make a killing. We just had the quilt convention…man! I love the quilt convention!”

The other passenger expresses surprise that a quilt convention would be a big draw.

“I know! Who woulda thought it? But yeah, little old ladies and their quilts! They get out here and spend some serious money!”

My brain grumbles at the “little old ladies” remark, but I’m too tired to object.

“This year was a slow year because of the economy, but they still had 20,000 people! Last year it was closer to 50,000! Super Shuttle gives us a list of the upcoming reservations every day so we can see how many people there are. Normally it’s like, 400. During the quilt convention, it was 2,000! A day! I love the quilt convention!”

And there you have it.

A post on my Japanese yarn-shopping experience will be coming shortly.

Pattern: Bayerische Socks, by Eunny Jang (Part 1, Part 2)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock in Crystal Pink, 2 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 0 (2mm)

Like Derek Redmond, if he knit. And if he had needed another two months to finish his race.

The Bayerische socks, with their tiny, twisty cables, are done. Eunny’s design is, as usual, impeccable, with twisted ribs flowing gracefully into cables which flow gracefully into the slipped stitches of the heel. The sock is very stretchy and should comfortably accommodate a wide foot. I worked two pattern repeats for the leg to make ankle socks. Four-and-a-half pattern repeats over the length of the foot fit my size 7N feet perfectly.

I will be heading to Japan at the end of this week and plan to check out a yarn shop or two. I imagine the knitter’s-eye view of Japan to be a cross between Mochimochi Land and a candy store. If candy were made of yarn. Stay tuned for my report!

Other entries about the Bayerische Socks:

• DNF
• I Totally Win the Slacker Olympics