Vogue Knitting - From My Viewpoint

I finally broke down and bought the Holiday 2008 issue of Vogue Knitting magazine last week. Over the years I’ve subscribed to the magazine a couple of times and always decided the patterns were too far out for me, and canceled my subscription. Lately I’ve come to the realization that I like parts of the magazine a lot and other parts, not so much. So again I’m toying with the idea of subscribing to the magazine, nothing wishy-washy about me.

I love the ads - why do they seem to look so much better in Vogue Knitting? And I love the features, the articles by Meg Swansen, and the teaching of new techniques. But trying to visualize myself in some of the fashions is more than even my imagination can handle. So the pattern generally get passed over.

Under What’s New on pages 8-10, I bought a knitting gauge similar to item #5, from a different source than the one listed in Vogue. There was a choice of 9 colors and the price was about $16. from Scout’s Swag.


Several of the other “metallic touches” appealed to me, stitch marker #1 that resembled medallions, and buttons #3, #7, and #12.

I haven’t checked it out yet, but the concept sounds very interesting. KnitBook is a book of patterns that you pick out from their selection, formatted from a choice of three bindings, one of which is a spiral binding. Then it is printed and mailed to you. I wonder how pricey it is. It’s from the website knitclick.com. But as the ad says, coming soon. I just checked it out and it’s still coming soon. So is Christmas!

The one item I did check out and sign up for is discussed under VK World on page 20, Patternfish. It’s found at patternfish.com. It’s an on line store for buying and selling knitting patterns. What’s nice about the site is that the patterns are indexed by designer and yarns besides the normal pattern categories. The patterns are reasonably priced, and the site keeps a file of the patterns you’ve purchased, a great backup for the big black hole that lurks in my workroom.

The advertisement on page 49 of Vogue Knitting, “Top 10 Picks for the Holidays” by Fiberbuzz.com mentions Planet Purl.com which I’d like to check out too. It mentions free patterns and an international yarn shop directory. ‘Free patterns’ always grabs my attention. Fiber buzz is a collection of artisans packaged for marketing. Their products are highlighted in ads in several fiber magazines under the title of “Top 10 Picks”. The list of artisans is quite large so the products in the ads vary continually.



Tags for your handmade gifts can be ordered from Knitterella.com. The tags are colorful, clean looking and would add a nice touch to a gift. Twelve Handmade tags for $5.95. The artist also has other items for sale like note cards. “She is a graphic artist who loves to knit”.

So now that I’ve paged through this issue of Vogue Knitting pretty thoroughly I’m waiting for the Winter issue to show up on January 27.