Here I review some of the magazines, books and sites aimed at us knitters.
Confession time…..
I’m a much nicer person when I knit and my sore shoulder/arm/elbow (the pain keeps moving), has dampened my creative enthusiasm a little of late. I’m not usually prone to low ebbs, but this has taken a little of the wind out of my sails, so to speak.
I think, fingers crossed, sod it! – fingers, toes and anything else you can think of crossed, it’s on the mend.
I can finally talk about my latest FO now the latest issue of Olann and has been published. It’s the Nellie May Shawl designed by OfBlitheSpirit aka Alitzah Grant and I’m sure you must have all seen it by now, as it’s gone viral.
Some of you probably spied this photograph on my Instagram feed from Wednesday night? I was fully convinced I’d manage to get to the last colour change on my Rainbow Granny Blanket at knitting group, but was far too busy chatting and cooing over Deirdre’s swag from Unravel to speed crochet.
The madness has abated round here again at least for a little while now the second issue of Olann and is out there, floating around for all to see.
I’m happy, Deirdre’s happy, we hope you’re happy too (sorry I realised I was listening to David Bowie, when I wrote this). I imagine our friends and family are slightly worried they’ll be the next to get a call to model for us. A g♥♥d friend has already been persuaded to lend us a child or two and we’re going to be looking for a volunteer or two, later at knitting group. (Ssh, don’t tell any of them yet 😉 they might decide not to come)
If you’ve seen the second issue, you’ll know I’ve been incredibly busy knitting and although I shared snippets, I wasn’t able to reveal my work before hand. I knitted the silver grey sample of Patricia Cox’s Sunset Cardigan for the photographs in the magazine. It’s actually a lovely pattern, with it’s detailed stitch panels, complimented by smooth stocking stitch. It was great to knit, the pattern has been extremely well written by Patricia, with a lot of care and attention to detail. Little things like the few rows of short row shaping around the neck, really help the whole garment sit much better.
The eagle eyed among you, will notice that I worked the decreases to create an obvious raglan line as I favour that look. Having used a solid shade in place of the beautiful Soft Donegal tweed Patricia used in her original, it also adds a little more detail.
The yarn itself, Sublime Extra Fine Merino Worsted was a pleasure to knit with. It’s smooth construction, meant it just slipped through my fingers and as you can see, it knits with great stitch definition and produces a fabric with a lovely drape and bounce to it.
The other knitting I’d been busy beavering away on, was the Turners Cross Cable Twist hat, one of my own designs. I knew what I wanted to make, having drawn some rough sketches out and armed with Barbara G. Walker’s Pattern Treasury books, I got down to some swatching.
Several samples and two and a half hats later, plus one test knit (thank you to my good friend Dr. Sock), I was satisfied with the design, except I wasn’t. Having had the shop for 10 years and spoken to literally thousands of knitters during that time, I know the majority of knitters still prefer to knit flat. However, there are a good few of us now that enjoy knitting in the round, myself included. So I re-worked the pattern to include the instructions for knitting the hat in the round using circular or double pointed needles.
Those of you that know me, know I love Tivoli Celtic Aran, see the review here if you don’t believe me. It’s an extremely underrated yarn, it’s a fantastic workhorse yarn, that is till 100% wool, doesn’t cost the earth, wears well and feels lovely. I’d love to see more colours available, but that’s only going to happen if everyone jumps on my Tivoli Celtic Aran bandwagon.
Anyway, it worked up just lovely for the hat, the stitches look great, especially the slipped stitch cable, which sits raised up proudly on the knitted fabric. It’s warm, woolly, easy to wear and will keep your head nice and snug.
In case you’re wondering about the name?
It’s because the handsome fellow (Shane), wearing it in the photographs for the magazine is from Turners Cross in Cork City of course 🙂
There has also been more knitting….
New socks, that I finished yesterday evening. What a great way to round off a very good day ♥♥♥
I’m hoping to get a little weaving in today, after some more work. Hope you get to spend some time doing what you love too.
Happy crafting!
Well I’m excited anyway.
You might remember I’d said I was up to something when I closed the shop?
Well I was and……
Drum roll please
My very good friend Deirdre and I are happy to announce the upcoming lauch of ‘Olann and‘ an online fibre magazine focusing on the Irish market.
We’re busy working on the first issue at the moment and it’s due out the third week of November…. yippee!
Expect loads of fibre, yarn and crafty goodness and we’d love to hear your ideas too.
You can find us in the following places so far, with more to come soon, including a blog 🙂
Instagram = @olannandmagazine
Pinterest = olannand
Facebook = Olann and
Twitter = @olannand
We’d love to have as many of you on board, so be sure to come and join us.
Happy Fibre Crafting!
So in the last post I covered 6 of the many knitting and crochet publications available in the UK and Ireland. I’ll have had a yarn shop for 10 years in August and my love of knitting magazines goes back further than that. I remember buying the first few issues of Knitting Magazine from The Guild of Master Craftsman Publishers when they first came out in 2003.
Actually, thinking back I can remember looking through my mums copies of Golden Hands from the 70’s. Not strictly a knitting magazine, they covered lots of different crafts too like crochet and dressmaking. I’m now the keeper (yes I read fantasy) of 5 full binders of them and I occasionally pull them out to have a look through them for ideas or to reminisce.
I digress, I’m here to talk current publications and Knitting Magazine seems like as good a place as any to begin with. Knitting, is one of my favourite publications, there’s a good mix of everything you want in a knitting magazine. More recently, Knitting has had a bit of a refresh and the new look magazine is even better. The patterns are laid out in sections now, so all the women’s garments are together, the men’s, children’s, accessories, etc. There’s often a ‘How To’ based on an unusual technique and there’s also the usual yarn and book reviews that you see in many of the other publications too. The magazine is very often pattern rich with an average number of 20 or so each month, but ‘bumper’ issues can have over 50 💕 One interesting thing to note – Knitting doesn’t have a web page as such to support the magazine.
Next up is Simply Knitting, which in truth is actually very similar to Knitting, but doesn’t appeal to me quite as much. Perhaps it’s because the publishers, Immediate Media Ltd. produce another of my favourite mags – The Knitter. Simply Knitting can quite often seem a little ‘light’. It’s a personal thing I’m sure, there are still lots of lovely patterns, reviews and editorials, but I think it probably lost something when The Knitter came out.
The Knitter on the other hand is usually so inspiring, it is the only knitting magazine deliberately aimed toward 😉 The More Experienced Knitter 😉 Whilst not strictly true, the designs inside are more likely to contain lace or cable stitches, stranded or intarsia colour work, or be of a less than standard construction. There is usually a master class, book/yarn reviews and everything else you’d expect form your knitting magazine. As with most of the publications nowadays they can also be found on all sorts of digital platforms like Facebook and Ravelry too. The actual magazine is quite different to the other knitting ones, it seems to be printed to a higher quality and this is probably reflected in the price of £5.99, I pay €9.16. It is a little pricey, but for me there have only been the odd month where I wouldn’t consider making any of the designs within. It’s usually quite the opposite if I’m honest, in the issue above (81) there are at least 5 patterns I could easily be persuaded into making and I’m in ♥ love ♥ with the extra free pattern for a Swedish Shawl by Donna Druchunas.
Whilst the colours aren’t me, I absolutely love the concept. it’s the first in a new series from The Knitter, so I can’t wait for the next issue to see what it brings.
Knitting & Crochet from Woman’s Weekly Home Series has turned into a monthly magazine after Time Inc (UK) decided to increase the number of issues from 4 to 12 per year. It is actually quite a good magazine and the one where you’re more likely to find licensed projects. By that I mean jumpers with Peppa Pig on them, or toys like Paddington Bear or Bob the Builder. Producing licensed patterns can be extremely expensive for companies now as there are all sorts of issues surrounding distribution rights, which is why you don’t see them so often now. The Woman’s Weekly has been around for as long as I can remember and many knitters will have used a pattern that they found in it.
Knit Now from Practical Publishing International and edited by Kate Heppell is one of the newer magazines to join the family with the first issue dating back to 2011. I can distinctly remember having a conversation with Dina when the magazine first came out, about how we wondered if it would continue to be new and innovative and in the main it has. It has a much more independent feel to it, with far more designs worked in yarns from the smaller producers. The magazine is committed to supporting the British yarn industry and they promote British yarns, even dedicating one whole issue every year to them. An important feature of the magazine is that the garments include sizes up to a 26.
It just so happens that the latest issue was the British yarn Industry issue and it contained an exclusive pattern book of 25 baby knits with it. Lots of little babas bedecked in knitting to coo over, oops I mean lots of knitting ☺️
Inside Crochet is one of two newish monthly crochet publications to hit the shelves, the other is Simply Crochet. As the names suggest they are dedicated crochet magazines, which cover all aspects of the craft so don’t be surprised to see projects using hairpin, broomstick or Tunisian crochet too. There are usually somewhere in the region of 20 projects in either mag, for anything from cardigans to dishcloths.
Like it’s competitor Inside crochet is a bright, cheerful publication aimed at making crochet fun and accessible. There are much fewer single patterns designed by the big yarn houses like Sirdar and King Cole available, so both of these publications go some way towards dragging crochet into the 21st century. Credit where credit is due though, the big boys have been trying to develop more designs of late, probably in order to grab you pennies.
Both magazines have web pages but, Simply Crochet has an app too, The Granny Square app is an added bonus and it’s free on the apple operating system so anyone can use it. Android users can access the patterns by signing up for the monthly newsletters here.
For me, as a knitter in the main, I find there’s little between both magazines. I love to look at the pretty pictures and read about what’s new in the crochet world and have to confess to being inspired by the rainbow granny squares on more than one occasion too. Both Simply Crochet and Inside Crochet cost £4.99/€7.49 each making it even harder to separate the two.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that as I’ve covered 12 different magazines so far that, that must be it, except it’s not. There are magazines from America that have traditionally been quite difficult to purchase here, but are much more readily available now and then there are the ones that I subscribe to too.
Another post me thinks?
Happy knitting!
At present there seems to be a real glut of knitting and crochet magazines available in the UK and Ireland, which could be seen as a good thing right? More Magazines equals more competition between the publications to get your custom therefore, you might expect magazines packed to the brim, full of up-to-date patterns and editorials, with reviews on the yarns and items you want to see. Sadly, I’ve noticed the opposite of late and in many of the magazines there seems to be a real thinning out of quality material.
As there are so many, this post could go on for ages, so I thought it best to split it into two, possibly more separate posts 🙂
Lets begin with my least favourite and the most expensive – Knitting & Crochet for Baby published by Immediate Media Co. (top) contains 16 knitting and crochet patterns and came with 6 x 22g balls of double knit yarn, a set of 4mm knitting needles and a 4mm crochet hook for the princely sum of…. wait for it…… €13.74 😱 😱 😱 That’s the price of a book, seriously? Rest assured I would never usually buy such a publication but I felt it was a necessary purchase as research for this post. There is the argument that the knitting kit with the magazine is what your paying for and of course it’s part of it but you can purchase much better quality products for only a little more money, in colours you prefer and without the risk of ‘running out’. The patterns are OK, the odd one is even quite lovely but, it’s hard to look past the price even for someone like me, who has been known to pay silly money for the odd, out of print knitting book 🙊
‘Free gifts’ with knitting magazines are one of my pet hates, they’re anything but free. The price of the gift has been factored into the cover price and I for one would much prefer the option to purchase an issue without the free stitch markers, tape measure, cheap, and nasty knitting detritus 💩
Oops, it looks like I might have to reel it in a bit, but not before I talk about The Art of Knitting.
Again there was a pair of needles and 2 balls of wool free with issue 1, which I picked up for the bargain price of €1.50 in McCarthys in Midleton. The patterns are OK and there’s a KAL for a blanket, which is made up of squares you knit with the free wool, using the new weekly stitch pattern. Note I said weekly, that’s the problem there in a nutshell. Issue 1 was €1.50 and issue 2 was €3.50 but all subsequent issues will be €4.99 each, €4.99 per week and according to the website you will have enough squares to complete your throw in 90 issues.
I’m not going to lie to you all. I actually have the original part work sitting on a shelf in my office from when it was released previously. I bought it to have as part of the reference library I was trying to build for an idea I had for the shop, but under normal circumstances could anyone truly justify spending €444.12 on this? It’s an awful lot of money whatever way you look at it, don’t you think?
Most of the magazines are 50% more expensive in the Euro price when you compare it to the price in Sterling, so a magazine that sells for £4.99 is likely to cost around €7.60 here.
Next we have Knit Today, which also came with a free gift. I’d stopped buying Knit Today for the shop some months back, because I felt it was repetitive and dull, but I was pleasantly surprised by issue 109. I’m not sure if there’s been a change in the editorial department since I stopped reading it, or if it’s just a ‘good’ issue, either way it’s an interesting read once more. One extremely positive thing to note is that the women’s garment patterns in Knit Today are all sized to fit from 8 to 22 as a minimum.
Love Crochet and Love Knitting For Babies aren’t so readily available in most shops. Produced by the same people that publish Knit Today, they’re bright, cheerful and pretty. Love Crochet is good for quick, cute projects, there’s a lot of frippery interspersed with the odd garment or blanket. Most, if not all of us are fond of pretty things, that are just that, they serve no other purpose than to be pretty and Love Crochet has loads of ideas to feed this need.
Love Knitting For Babies is just that, things for babies, cardi’s, hats, toys, etc. (I wouldn’t mind the odd dinosaur though, so what that says about me I’ll never know?). A lot of the patterns might seem familiar and that’s largely because they’re taken from the bigger mills like Sirdar, Patons and Wendy or from other books and publications.
Let’s Knit from Aceville Publications Ltd. is apparently the UK’s best selling knitting magazine and it’s easy to see why. First and foremost Let’s Knit feels young, vibrant and fresh faced, it contains a good mix of editorials, news, reviews and most importantly patterns. The magazine is backed up by a similarly looking web page complete with free patterns, a blog, how to videos and a craft forum to share in your hobby with similarly like minded people. There’s also a Facebook Page, Pinterest account and Twitter feed to soothe all your ♥ knitty ♥ needs.
Let’s Knit usually contains a good range of patterns with everything from toys through to garments, most of which could probably be best described as ‘modern’ rather than wardrobe staples (only my opinion). It’s a knitting magazine dedicated to knitting with the odd crochet patten thrown in for good measure.
Let’s Knit also champion the industry, from the little people like me, to the big boys like Rowan. They hold The British Knitting Awards every year and launched The Love Your Yarn Shop Campaign in 2014, which will I hope, continue to grow in popularity as Bricks and Mortar yarn shops are becoming even more of a rarity as the rise of internet shops increase. Without rent, rates and amenities these online businesses have minimal overheads which make it harder for us to compete very much like florists and supermarkets.
Have you seen any of these 6 publications, if so which do you favour? In the next post I’ll run through more of the available magazines, there are at least another 8 to look at.
Happy Knitting!
The Winter edition of Knitty was published in December and I’ve only just managed to spend some time reading through it now? I say reading through it but that doesn’t seem the right turn of phrase, maybe it should be ‘clicking’ through it? Anyway, as I settle down in front of my computer enrobed in as many woolly layers as possible – there’s a window in front of my desk, a big drafty one, but the view (above) is beautiful.
I love the individuality of Knitty, which isn’t as reliant on the ‘big boys’ within the industry purchasing advertising and promoting their own agenda because it’s online, rather than in print. Not that I’m against knitting magazines, far from it, a quick glance into my office would confirm that, it’s just that Knitty appeals to the more creative, experimental side of me I guess.
As usual it all makes for a good read and being the 50th issue it’s jammed packed with articles, reviews and patterns.
Cracking on then
In Cool Stuffs there are reviews for several of the most recently published knitting books and the good people of Knitty also have a look at the Double Pointed Knitting Needle Sorter and Gauge and the Eszee Twist Tool for Spinners.
Donna Druchunas Ethnic Knitting Adventures article on Fighting Prejudice in Knitting and in Life makes for an interesting read. I shan’t go into more detail here in order to encourage you to take 5 minutes to have a read yourselves. The piece works as a great introduction to The Slouchy Saami Hat designed by Donna’s friend Susan Santos which she created after a visit to the Nordiska museet — the Nordic Museum in Stockholm.
Susan took her inspiration from the exhibitions of Swedish folk art and fashion from the Saami (or Sami), the Arctic indigenous people of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia. The traditional folk costumes of the Saami are often adorned with bright bands of weaving in geometric and floral designs, if you’re interested in knowing more, pop over to Roman K’s fantastic blog dedicated to folk costumes.
Franklin Habit’s Stitches in Time column has a pair of vintage gloves for us in the 50th issue. Franklin has adapted the pattern from Weldon’s Practical Knitter, oh how I’d love even one of them. Knitted in 4ply yarn the gloves are sized to fit a man, however Franklin explains that simply shortening the fingers should make them a better fit for women as the ‘hand’ part of the glove is quite elastic.
Amongst my favourites in the pattern section are
Alice by Juliett Turjoman – a very unusual hat, knitted in aran weight yarn the hat is made in 3 seperate pieces. Juliett was took inspiration from Parisian designer Alice Bernard who was a successful couturière and hat designer during the Roaring Twenties
Lean On Me by Anna Maltz – a dazzling, slim fit tank top which I adore. It’s worked in double knit and has steeks, but could prove so tempting that it has to be knitted :-0
Smithfield Pullover by Amy Christoffes – a cosy, oversized, top down, aran weight jumper. No endorsment is needed as it obviously sells itself. My only problem would be making sure it didn’t wander off with ♥ Dina ♥
I also love Minetta by Kirsten Kapur but as beautiful as it is, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s knitted in 4ply (sob), one day…..
Last but not least in Knittyspin there are a couple of interesting articles well worth a look at including one on jar dyeing by Laurie Osbourne.
Why not pop over to Knitty if you haven’t already and have a look for yourself 🙂
Happy Knitting!
♥ Magpies, Homebodies and Nomads ♥ from Cirilia Rose is a compendium of beautiful patterns designed by Cirilia herself and photographed by the exceptionally talented Jared Flood. Within it’s tempting cover Cirilia explains that she has split the patterns in the book into three sections, each one accommodating the different parts of our knitterly personalities.
Magpies contains designs to utilise those beautiful small amounts of precious yarn that many of us purchase with no project in mind but know we just have to have. Like Cirilia, I myself tend to buy a ‘souvenir’ hank or two and find each evokes a memory of a trip somewhere, time inevitably spent with my loved ones and I love the process of finding a worthwhile pattern to knit.
Within the Magpie section there are 8 designs, including one of the main reasons for my purchase and necessary addition to my fibre reference library.
The Isla Cardigan shown here with The Marion Collar is I think, a beautiful classic piece of knitwear. Cirilia has used Zealana Rimu DK which is a blend of merino and possum fibre. The deep rib creates an empire waistline whilst the slightly puffed shoulders and three quarter length sleeves add to the vintage look. The cardigan is completely set off with the addition of the Marion Collar, but I think we could be forgiven for wearing it without.
I’m also rather taken with the Breve Cowl which has been knitted with 2 very different yarns – Noro Silk Garden and Rowan Denim. The easy 2 row lace pattern can be used effectively with most yarns and because it’s a wraparound cowl, the play with colours and textures of the layers created, is simple but effective.
Homebodies is for comfort, feeding the nester in all of us. Whether it takes the form of cosy slippers or comfy homewares, it embraces early evenings spent in by the fire. Within the Homebodies section of 8 patterns there are some lovely designs including Heima Slippers, Borgarnes Pillow and the beautiful Loro Vest. Heima Slippers to indulge my current sock and slipper knitting fetish and the Borgarnes Pillow appeals to the eco warrior in me as it’s knitted in t-shirt yarn. The Loro Vest has universal appeal, looking great whatever the weather, layered over a summer dress, jeans or leggings.
It’s the Nomads section that has truly caught my eye and resulted in yet more additions to my ‘must knit’ wish list. The first temptation comes in the form of the Gezell Coat made in Royalpaca from Schulana which seems to be a aran weight yarn, meaning it won’t take too long to knit 😉 Although hard to see in the photograph , there are little knitted bobbles adorning the hem and sleeve edges to add interest.
Next we have the classically shaped Coterie Cardigan with it’s double breasted, military detail and beautiful I-cord edging. Once again I can happily say ‘it’s aran weight’ 👍
The kaleidoscope of colour that is the Studio Pullover is pure rainbow pleasure in a jumper, but look past the colourful heart and you’ll notice the jumper is a cleverly constructed, saddle shoulder, aran weight wardrobe staple (for me anyway). I do love the multicoloured heart and have even had a look at Hippie Chix fibre Art locks but I’m not convinced it’s me. Sadly the Rittenhouse yarn from Manos del Uraguay has also been discontinued so I’ll have to look for an alternative. How bad 😜
Cirilia has included the usual page of abbreviations and a couple of pages dedicated to ‘special techniques’ and this book does contain a few including, provisional cast on, applied I-cord, Kitchener stitch and short row shaping. Don’t let that put you off though Youtube is a fantastic resource and Craftsy always has fantastic classes on offer and of course there’s always me . If I don’t know, I’ll want to, so it’ll just be an opportunity waiting to happen.
One of the things I love about Cirilia’s book is that she’s also added a ‘recommended reading’ page or three, which includes several of my favourite books and one or two I hadn’t heard of. Me thinks further investigation might be in order 😉
Happy Knitting!
Included with our regular delivery of books from The Book people this month was Knitting with Giant Needles by Hanna Charlotte Erhorn and published by Dorling Kindersley.
If I was to be completely honest, on first glance I wasn’t that impressed with the content of the book however, I decided to give it a proper chance. Armed with a cuppa I spent some time perusing the pages and have since revised my opinion.
Using big needles or crochet hooks isn’t everyone’s idea of fun. Big tools can be a little different to get use to holding and you will probably have to change your technique a little, but the speed with which you can finish a project is fantastic. I love the look of chunky stitches and the added interest they bring from the texture. Big knitting is a great way of incorporating knitting into your home with chunky cushions and throws, bathmats and even wall hangings.
Back to the book…..
As you might expect with a book from DK, everything is photographed beautifully and explained very clearly. There are a couple of pages at the front of the book discussing chunky needles and yarns and towards the back of the book there is a great techniques section covering basic knitting, sewing up and crochet.
In total there are 35 projects in the book, most of them would fall under the heading ‘accessories’ or ‘frippery’ , however most of them are cute and quirky and would make great gifts.
My only complaint is that there isn’t a pattern included for the beautiful, crochet hearts shown on page 9 of the book, but I’m sure Attic 24 has a version on her blog.
I’ve picked 5 of my favourites to show you
This one to be fair is a little questionable
Overall not a bad little book for The book People price of €8 and it would be a great book to give with a couple of balls of super chunky yarn and a set of big needles as a gift to a newbie knitting friend.
Happy knitting!
Confessions of a Fibre Strumpet 