Knitty Winter 2012: A Review

Let's have a look at the patterns in the Knitty Winter 2012 Issue.

This single, simple, bold image on an afghan seems like a new idea. Afghans are usually all about small, repeating patterns. I like this piece. It does seem very suitable for a kid's room, but could also work in the living room. One minor nitpick is that the winter theme is a bit limiting for something you might want for nearly year-round use.

Here we have.... ruched fingerless gloves. Pardon me, cabled armwarmers — this is what the pattern calls them. I guess they're not bad things of their sort. I wouldn't pair them with lace and satin ribbon-trimmed bloomers, but then that's me.

These fingerless gloves look really steampunk to me, rather than anything one could wear in real life. The model has paired them with a t-shirt and jeans, which looks ridiculous. I'd at least put them with something somewhat dressy.

These mittens are supposed to be an homage to the flying spaghetti monster, with noodles represented on the gloves and the pom-poms standing in for the meatballs. I don't think anyone will get the reference without being told, but the mittens are cute, sans pom poms.

I like this cardigan, but I am not sure about the collar. It looks kind of like a built-in cowl and kind of like it just isn't sitting right. The pattern says it can be worn open across the shoulders. I wish there was a picture of it being worn that way so I could assess whether that looked better.

Nice, wearable cardigan with a simple yet striking yoke detail. I'd have matched the buttons to the main colour yarn, though. They pull the eye away from the yoke, and that yoke is enough to carry the design without any competing details.

Beautiful jacket. I was trying to decide whether those might be Celtic motifs, but the designer writes that the design came from some heart-shaped motifs she saw painted on the ceiling of a Maori ceremonial building when on a family trip to New Zealand. Maori sweater designs might just give Celtic designs a run for their money if they got the chance.

Not a bad variation on the classic Aran cardigan.

This is a classic aran pullover with a slightly unusual neckline to set it apart from the usual. The man who wears this sweater will need to have enough neck (and not too much chin) to carry this off.

This top-fastened cardigan has good points (I love the hand-spun yarn and its gorgeous colours), but does look a little rough and ready. If you want a sweater pattern in this style, there are better designs out there, and I'd keep looking until I found one.

On the same page, we also have this sweater, and again the colours are beautiful (this is a handpainted yarn), but the style is a little lacking. Notice that the neck is turning itself back at the left side of the photo? Hard as a I try to keep an open mind about some patterns that I wouldn't personally wear, I can never get past my conviction that clothes need to sit and hang properly. And yes, when I say that I say it in much the same tone as your mother used when she told you to sit up straight.

This hooded jacket is the Swiss army knife of sweaters. I'll let the designer, Jodie Gordon Lucas, tell you about it in her own words:

Made in worsted-weight wool, the base jacket is worked in one piece in a way that allows the unique cabling to proceed without interruption around the arms. The jacket avoids being too boxy by using tapered Wood Grain panels to join the front and back. These panels appeal to the sewing phobic since they allow most of the assembly of the basic jacket to be done on knitting needles and not with the sewing needle.

While the body of the jacket is both eye-catching and unusually constructed, its true distinguishing feature is that every opening is weather proofed. There is a close fitting, lined hood. The gapless front opening is achieved with a zipper which is then camouflaged by a wide button placket. The cuffs extend to become fingerless mitts or can be worn retracted providing a barrier to cold air that might otherwise sneak up the arm. Finally, a narrow band of ribbing sewn into the interior of the jacket around the waist provides a simple yet effective draft excluder while providing a bit of gentle shaping to the waist.

I have never seen any knitting pattern this ingeniously practical, and it's also attractive and flattering. This is a designer who is technically accomplished, has an eye for design, is very practical, and just in general knows what she's doing. Damn.

This cardigan has good points — I love the delicately cabled panels — but it's rather shapeless and unflattering and that front closure just looks awkward and poorly constructed. When you compare this sweater to the above, well, there's just no comparison between mediocre or bad design, and good design.

Nice socks!

I find the hand-painted yarn used for these socks to be a little busy for this pattern — the nice detailing at the sides doesn't show to advantage.

This hat is a reference to the BBC show Sherlock. Apparently there's a wallpaper in it featuring a smiley face. I would have stopped short of putting the smiley face on, because the wallpaper pattern on the hat is terrific. But the designer of this pattern is only 15. In light of her accomplishment (because someone two or three times her age would be justly proud of such a good design), I think I'll have to be understanding about the smiley face.

Very attractive fair isle hat design. The star on the top is something a bit different and striking.

I can't say I'm taken with this cowl. The designer used a hand-painted yarn and brought a lot of technical knowledge and skill to its construction, and it still looks like some shapeless chunk of knitting randomly swathed about the neck. And that yarn may be hand-painted, but I've seen more attractive acrylics at Zellers.

This cowl is much more appealing than the last one (the colour is beautiful and I love the Celtic knot design), but I'm not liking the way it sits. To my mind a cowl looks better, is more flattering, and will keep the wearer warmer when it lies gracefully in front rather than sitting stiffly upright like a section of tubing. Though lots of cowls are made in this style, so I may be alone in this.

What an exquisite shawl. This isn't something you'll wear often, but it will come in handy for summer weddings or going out somewhere special on summer evenings, and it'll be something that can be worn as long as it remains in good shape, and possibly handed down to the next generation. And then, sometimes, beauty is its own justification.

I can't see too many men wanting to wear this shawl, but then it's not being positioned as a man's shawl — this is the designer modelling his own work. It's a nice item, technically interesting and pleasing in its rainbow-like colourway.

The design for this square is an adapted Victorian pattern. In Victorian times, the triangles would have been knitted separately, then sewn together to make a square, and then sewn to other like squares to make a counterpane. This designer figured out how to knit the square using circular needles. It'll be far less work to assemble these squares, and the end result will be called an afghan.

From the "Not All Vintage Is Good Vintage" File

I often say how much I love vintage patterns, and how fascinating I find these remnants of the past, but this isn't to be interpreted to mean I love all of them, nor that I'm one of those who go on about how much I'd like to live in the past. I feel very fortunate to live in a time in which we not only have an unprecedented standard of living but an unprecedented access to the best design, art, music, inventions and scientific discoveries produced by past generations. We're free to incorporate the greatest achievements of the past into contemporary daily life, and to ignore the rest as outdated and irrelevant. And we take it all so for granted that I don't think we can begin to realize just how fortunate we are.

Coming up: Look for the Knitty Winter 2012 Issue review, which is scheduled for posting tomorrow.

Vogue Knitting Winter 2013: A Review

I follow a dozen or so knitting magazines for this blog, a number of which are excellent publications, but Vogue Knitting is always the stand-out, the knitting magazine with more cachet than all the others, and I always get excited about looking at the latest issue. And it seems other people feel the same way, as my review for the Holiday 2012 issue of Vogue Knitting is, of this writing, my second-most-viewed post.

Let's have a look at the latest, the Vogue Knitting Winter 2012/2013 issue.

Cute little vest that would work well with quite a range of outfits. I like the collar, which frames the face.

I quite like this one. It's got great detail and it's flattering and it's something a woman could wear a lot. I like that the back has detail too. There's nothing wrong with the plain stockinette stitch back, but often it's the default because it's easy, both for the designer and the knitter. It's worth the extra effort to make an item that's truly striking and finished from every angle.

This is one of those pieces that, while nothing original, are perfect in their way because the designer has taken the trouble to make a piece that really works on its own merits. The proportions are so good. The wide shoulders and the exaggerated but not overwhelming turtleneck suit each other, and the fit through the waist keeps it all looking trim and flattering.

Another very polished-looking, wearable piece. I love detailed cuffs on sweaters, which set off the hands. Generally it's just so much better to draw the public gaze to a woman's face and hands than to other areas of her body, such as her mid-section, hips or chest, even if those areas are in a condition to be highlighted. To paraphrase Coco Chanel, dressing impeccably means noticing the woman, which to me means that you notice what she says and does and are taken with her personality and her attractiveness as a whole person, and not her secondary sexual attributes.

Ah, the use of novelty yarns is a challenge so many designers take on and so few really master. There must be a good use for self-ruffling yarn out there, but this isn't it. The ruffles just detract from this sweater. And the two shades of red don't quite work together.

I'm trying to put aside my dislike for sloppy sweaters in order to assess this one. Clothes generally look best when they fit properly, but there are exceptions. It's all about the overall mix of proportions. If you have the height and the figure and an otherwise fitted outfit, yes, you can top it all off with this. I like the unusual effect of the twisting triangles, which reminds me of a double helix. If you're a science teacher or professor, you might have some quiet fun teaching classes in this sweater and seeing if anyone picks up on the reference.

I'm not enthusiastic about this dress. It isn't unflattering or impractical (though those bell sleeves would drive me mad), but it does look rather kitschy to me and more like bunch of stitch swatches tacked together than a united, well-designed whole. However, that's just my personal preference. If you love this pattern, you'll love wearing the dress, which should flatter most women as long as it's the right size for them.

The stitchwork on this jacket is so amazing it carries the whole design, which is otherwise as simple as can be. It will look a little bulky, but that doesn't matter so much in a jacket. I'd make it in a neutral colour, or one that went with a lot of my clothes, so I could wear it often.

Nice jacket with simple lines and just enough detail to make it interesting. It's a little small for this model. And yes, it doesn't button all the way to the bottom, which I've griped a lot about in past posts, but it works here because the fronts still lie closed.

This is gorgeous piece (Lord, that exquisite yoke! The continuance of the pattern to the beautiful hem!) with one major flaw: it's going to make you look pregnant. And maybe you like the idea of getting seats given to you on public transit, but unless you really want to field questions about when you're due, I'd pass on this faux maternity wear unless you think you're up to task of reworking this design to get rid of all that excess fullness below the yoke as the designer should have done.

Oh man, let me count the ways in which this sweater just sucks. It's sloppy. It has what amount to mud flaps on the side — what woman doesn't want to look eight inches wider than she is? It has what look like knife slits on both back and front — please tell me we're not going back to that eighties-era Flashdance look. You can't see it in these pictures, but it has a big smile-shaped slash opening just below the neckline. The pockets and the back of the neckline look rough, and the cable and hexagon corded detailing isn't much more accomplished. I can't find one single thing to like about this sweater but the yarn, which, as it is Debbie Bliss's Cashmerino Aran, deserved much better from the world than this. The narration for the video of this sweater calls this design "out there". That must be Vogue Knitting-speak for "out there in the dumpster".

Here we have a palate refresher in the form of a classic textured turtleneck.

Oh, I like this one. It's a polished piece you could wear with a suit. The hourglass-shaped cable detailing on the front is both interesting and will be figure-enhancing, and the back has good detailing too. Just be sure to make sure your version fits as well as this one fits the model.

This is a variation on the classic textured turtleneck just above. You'll just have to decide whether you're a cables or a bobbles person.

Floral kneesocks with flowers on them, little stemmed flowers on the toes, and a tassel tie. Oooo-kay. Well, they're not that bad. They're not poorly designed or unflattering, or visually unpleasing, and I bet the pattern gets its share of attention on Ravelry, because it would appeal to people who like their clothes and/or accessories to be fun and playful.

The text accompanying this picture and the socks above reads, "It’s oh-so-nice to knit Mother Nature, in pictorial forms of lush bouquets". The flowers don't actually look like anything in nature, being too stylized. This sweater looks a lot like something designed in the eighties to me, and especially reminds me of Susan Duckworth's patterns, though the shaping of the sweater is more contemporary.

I absolutely love the shape of this short-sleeved pullover. The collar and the proportions are perfect, and this is an item that will flatter most women. And though animal-inspired prints aren't usually my thing, I even quite like the pattern, which is sharply graphic. I'm not crazy about the colourway, but this pullover could look really good in the high-contrast colourway of your choice.

This is supposed to be the knitted version of a safari jacket. I suppose it succeeds at being that, but then it had the misfortune to meet with a reviewer who doesn't think safari jackets are attractive or work as street wear. I don't care for intarsia designs that consist of random blobs of colour; I don't think it works in knitting design. However, if you like this sweater, do go ahead and make it, but I'd advise you to scale it down to fit you better than it does this model. Aim for just one size too large for you in terms of width, and the right size in terms of the sleeve and hem-length. There's oversized, and then there's sloppy.

I wish designers had to take some kind of course in colour-blocking before they could attempt to work with it. This use of colour blocking looks random overall and rough at the transition.

Well, this is a new variation on the top-buttoned sweater. I don't think this style would work on every figure, but it would definitely work on some. You'll need to have an average or longer neck, a small or flat chest, and a stomach you don't mind showing. If you're pregnant and don't mind having your bump on prominent display (and isn't it going to be no matter what you do?), this is a sweater that could be both maternity and post-maternity wear. And of course I haven't any criticisms of any other aspect of this sweater — it's really lovely overall.

I'm not crazy about this, but that may just be because I'm definitely more of a flowing lines design person than a linear graphics design person. I do have one tweak to make, and that's that if you're making this, to make the trim around the armholes in the same colour as the body of the sweater, because they stand out too much and not in a good way.

This sweater is evocative of styles from a hundred years ago, because in those days women used to wear these long, loose sweaters. It feels contemporary though, in its simplicity. I'm not crazy about the extra fullness at the hips, but the sweater is gracefully shaped and a light enough weight that it shouldn't be too hard to carry off. I do wish something had been done to finish off the sleeves and hem though, because they look a little... unfinished. I'd work some little line of detailing into the sweater and then use the detail again at the hems and sleeves.

I can't find much to like about this sweater, which basically looks like a bad beginner project: sloppy and roughly constructed. Also it looks very eighties. Why oh why must we rehash the styles of that decade, which gets my vote for having the worst fashions of any decade in the 20th century? I was there, and let me tell you, once around that block was enough.

This is one of those designs that I would never wear myself but that could look head-turning on the right person. I have a friend with a very contemporary dress sense who could totally rock this. If you make this pattern, just make sure you're prepared to wear something under it.

Even though I always have thought the stranded underside of a fair isle pattern had its own appealing look, and this is an interesting and even witty concept, I'm not sure I can get behind this reversible sweater design. If I saw a man wearing this sweater inside out, it would make me all twitchy and OCD and I would have to hold myself back from telling him, "Do you know you're sweater's inside out?"

This sweater could look really sharp on a man with a modern clothing style. The detail running down the side really sets it off.

I don't like the colourway on this sweater, but everything else works. This is colour blocking that looks like it was done on purpose.

This isn't bad, though if you're knitting this for a man get his approval before you buy yarn in these colours. He'll probably prefer something a little more traditional.

Never Not Knitting

After the text- and picture-heavy posts of the last two days (good thing I'll only have to review Rowan Knitting and Crochet Magazine twice a year), here's an video post for you. This is a fun little satirical ditty called "Never Not Knitting", which seems to be the theme song for a blog by the same name. I do have to wonder why the "husband" in the lyrics can't do the dishes or do laundry or water the plants. It sounds like the "wife" may have taken up knitting as a means of going on strike because she was expected to do it all.

And I'm afraid to think what a The Knitting Needle and the Damage Done theme song would be like.