Tsuwano

Tsuwano was the first place I visited by myself when I moved to Japan (had to figure out the trains and everything). It's a charming little town, small enough to tour by rented bicycle. Large, colorful carp swim in the waterways along the old-fashioned streets. There are two Catholic churches (something of a rarity in Japan) and a beautiful Shinto shrine at the top of a hill that you reach only after passing through a thousand bright red tori gates. The town is known for its traditional paper; the stores are full of beautiful papercrafts and you can visit a small factory to see paper made much the same way it's been for several hundred years. And, most unusually, you can ride a steam locomotive there and back from the main train line.

I kept thinking nostalgically of Tsuwano while I was knitting this scarf, maybe because the scarf, like the town, is so small and so simple yet—if I do say so myself—charming and memorable. It can be worn as an infinity loop, a cowl or a traditiona