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I've been meaning to write all week long - I even have a swatch of dollar and a half on the needles. I wanted to better illustrate how the shaping is done in pattern and how the stitch pattern looks up close. Is anybody interested in that?But I didn't get to it. Too busy. Shout if you'd find it helpful.Anyhow. I was catching up on my email this morning and saw that KBTH members were discussing Japanese knitting. Anyone who knows me that a surefire way of getting my attention is to say 'Japanese'. I'm obviously not alone: the title of this post refers to the number of visits my post received on Montreal Knits.Japanese knitting books are very, very cool. However, unless one has access to a Japanese book store, it's difficult to tell from the cover whether a book is worth spulrging for.Sometime today, Amy Brotslaw Schweiger wrote about a new feature on Nihon Vogue's website: the ability to browse through books. Fantastic. I wrote to Amy to thank her and ask if she'd mind my writing about it. She didn't and also credited her friend May for telling her about it.I have a few hints if this interests you:-first, Japanese knitting patterns are all done in charts and in one size only. More detail can be found here.-Nihon Vogue's website is here. It is in Japanese, but googling 'tezukuritown' will bring up the option to 'translate this page'.-Online translating tools are hit and miss. NV's knit books can be found on the left hand side under book>seeing ones.-The 'action browser' is on the right, under the 'add to cart' button (circled above).-As far as I know, NV does not ship to North America. If you intend to purchase one of the titles, note the ISBN and look it up on Yesasia or Amazon.co.jp. Both ship to North America - Yesasia offers free shipping but the prices are higher than on Amazon.co.jp.-Be sure not to miss Shimada Toshiyuki's latest. I'm ordering it this week and one or two stitch dictinoraries may be added to my cart as well.-Molly Ann will be glad to note that there are several vintage pattern books there as well.