Creative Knitting Summer 2013: A Review

Let's have a look at the designs in Creative Knitting's Summer 2013 issue!





Love this pillow. It's simple yet pretty and effective. I can imagine it working in any room of my house if it were in the right colours.





I also like this little rug. Though I'm not sure I could stand to have anyone wipe their feet on it.





The description of this little cardi makes a point naming the ruffles as a design feature, but they're actually the one aspect of this sweater I don't care much for. They're just sort of... sitting there, adding bulk. The rest of the design is very nice.





Nice simple shawl. This is a design you use a beautiful, excellent quality yarn for, something that can stand on its own with just a simple pattern.





Very much like this little lace-trimmed open cardigan. It's well-shaped, it's just feminine enough to be pretty without being too frilly for most women's tastes, and it's so simple it will go with many a summer outfit.





This pair of socks is supposed to be a sock knitter's beginner pair. They're not a bad pair to start with if you like the bobby sock cut and don't always wind up with chafed heels when you wear them.





These pot holders are supposed to be another beginner project, this time to learn the basics of double knitting. They look like a beginner project too. If you like them go ahead, but if not I promise you, you can find an easy double knitting project you do like by quickly searching on Ravelry.





This little boy's sailor sweater is kind of cute, though the pictorial design looks a little crude to me.





I like this little dress, hat and backpack, though I would put the pockets higher on the dress and I wouldn't make all three items for the same child. While you can always make a two-item matching knitted set, making a three-item knitted set nearly always looks like overkill and like the knitter was trying desperately to use up all the yarn of that kind. Or just didn't know when to stop.





Pretty pullover. I'd shorten these sleeves by a few inches or so. Right at the elbow is an awkward-looking sleeve length that tends to look dowdy, like the mid-calf skirt length.





Jewelry made out of yarn never looks right to me — it's always just too crude looking. That said, the red poppy necklace is one of the best rendered knitted jewelry examples I've ever seen. The choker's flowers don't actually look like flowers to me.





Cute hat! I like the pansy design.





Very pretty shawl. I love those tulips in the back.





These slippers are another technical exercise because they involve three stitch patterns. They're not bad, though I'm not crazy about them. It's almost impossible to find slippers, even non-knitted slippers, that have any style to them. They're all so shapeless and juvenile looking, and they all make your feet like something that fell off The Muppet Show sewing table. Make these in your favourite colour and add buttons you really like and you'll probably be pretty happy with them.





The yarn used here is pretty, the stitches are pretty... but I just can't sign off on that twisted front. It's going to add bulk in the front and probably just look like it's on wrong a lot of the time.





I really don't like the buttons on this otherwise quite pretty lace shrug. They look lopsided and distractingly random, for one thing. It looks like the buttons on the right button up the sleeve, but do the buttons on the left side actually have any purpose?





Very much like this simple, pretty little top, but the top decorative band is going to be awkwardly placed on many women. However, it can be easily raised or lowered, or left off altogether.





I like this top, but don't like the vest. It looks just plain unfinished. It apparently has a racer back (mentioned in the description but now shown here), which I can't imagine would help matters.





I rather like this one; the concept is clever and fairly well done on the whole. It is a little on the boxy and shapeless side, but that could be corrected, along with the colour combination, which does not do this sweater any favours.





I do rather like this cover up and matching beach bag. It's knitted in cotton, which would be so absorbent and comfortable on a hot day.





Not a bad simple hooded pullover. Though I bet most boys or young men would choose different colours for it.





This is rather clownish and unfinished looking, although let me tell you, it looks better than I would ever have thought a horizontally striped drape front cardigan could look. The stripes have been kept relatively subtle by their narrowness and colourway. Must remember that trick.





This is another technique demonstration piece. This time the item is a way to learn some decorative weaving techniques; the decorative touches you see here are made by interlacing and twisting yarn through the surface of the garment after it's completed. I can't say I care for this design. The decorative touches are detracting, rather than adding, and the shape isn't great, although maybe this sample is just a little too big for this model. I think I'd like it better in another colourway — this one's a little crude.