We just returned from the absolute best family vacation in Japan!
You can see a little recap with lots of my photos in this Instagram reel. But I must make a special post about my visit to the lovely yarn store Eylul in Osaka, and its lovely owner, Yuri Kojima!
I met Yuri years back when she visited Vogue Knitting Live in NYC and stopped by my booth there. Since then she’s been carrying my kits in her Osaka store—my only retailer in Japan! It’s an honor to be featured in a yarn shop in the country where the art of amigurumi was born. 🥹
Yuri has been influential in my design work as well, encouraging me to keep up my series of new year animals and advising me on them, too! (It’s thanks to her suggestion that the Year of the Dragon kit comes with pompoms for the dragons to protect.)
Yuri and her colleague Koyuki welcomed me and my sister-in-law, Jenna, for an evening of tea with gourmet jellies, dinner at an okonomiyaki restaurant, and dessert at Mister Donut, home of the original Japanese donut. It was wonderful to get to know Yuri better and learn the story of how the idea for Eylul started when she asked herself, “would I be satisfied with my life if it were to end now?”
Of course before leaving we had to purchase some lovely Japanese yarn, including paper yarn and unique yarn that’s created from factory oddments.
This was such a fun and meaningful part of my trip to Japan. Thank you, Yuri!