Knitting Magazine – Confessions of a Fibre Strumpet

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!

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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 🙂

So which one should you buy?

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!