Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine Fall/Winter 2013: A Review

Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine has released its Fall/Winter 2013 issue, and it does its best to take us from fall through the winter with vintage-inspired knits, clever beadwork, back-to-school, and Christmas patterns. Let's have a look, shall we?

Pattern #1, Cream Jacket. Not sure about this one. It's styled as an evening jacket, and while it looks passable in this professionally styled and modelled sample shot when viewed from the back, I'm inclined to think that on most of us it'll just look like we have our cardigans on backwards.

Pattern #2, Gold Bead Necklace. I'm not a fan of knitted yarn jewelry, which tends to look like something made by a ten-year-old at summer camp, but I'm always hoping to see successful examples of it. This is one of the best attempts I've seen, but it's still not quite a success. It still looks more like a collar than a necklace, although that's an improvement on looking like a lanyard.

Pattern #3, Gold Sweater. I like this sweater, though I think it was a mistake to style it as evening or dressy wear, as they've done here. It's too casual and heavy-looking for evening wear, and would look better done in a non-metallic with some pretty beads, and worn with jeans.

Pattern #4, Pearl-Beaded Sweater. This pearl-beaded Aran is very pretty, though like the pattern above it does look as though it wandered into the wrong photo shoot. It's too heavy to be worn with a sheer floaty skirt. A tailored wool skirt or trousers would be a better complement.

Pattern #5, Beaded Collar Sweater. Love this. It's so severely simple but that beaded collar is all it needs. It has three-quarter length sleeves which can be unflattering on some women, but sleeves can always be lengthened or shortened as desired.

Pattern #6, Ribbed Cardigan. Er. Not sure about this one, though it has its good points. The buttonhold band, which is described as "gently rippling", looks from this photo to be pulling away from the buttons below. The lace peplum hem is pretty but isn't going to be flattering for most women. The ribbing isn't flattering either and doesn't really work with a dressy detail like a lace peplum, especially when combined with a tulle skirt and satin sash. I'd suggest some mods to fix all these issues (i.e., ditching the ribbing for a slightly lacy pattern, finding some other way of edging the button band so it doesn't look pulled), but you'd basically have to rewrite the pattern.

Pattern #7, Sleeveless Dress. Very serviceable and classic sheath dress pattern. The yarn choice was a good one for this design – it's "Milano", which when knitted up passes at a glance for tweed fabric.

Pattern #8, Peplum Jacket. This jacket was inspired by the iconic Bar Suit from Dior's 1947 New Look collection. And it's a very competent piece of work and does indeed look quite a lot like the jacket from that famous Bar Suit, but I think it didn't quite translate into a knit – the lines (inevitably) aren't as crisp and it looks rather blah. And yet I hate to suggest mods because it's, you know, the Bar Suit. Making it in another colour and with some statement buttons might help.

Pattern #9, Boxy Jacket and Skirt. Here we have a valiant effort to translate the classic Chanel-type suit into a knit. Unfortunately that boxy suit style was really unflattering to anyone who didn't look like Gabrielle Chanel and transforming it into knitwear isn't going to help. Even the model isn't working this, though she's giving it a hero's try.

Pattern #10, A-Line Jacket. This jacket is an interpretation of another Dior design, this time from his Alphabet line. I don't think it the most flattering look, but it's simple and a classic and can look good over something quite fitted and streamlined, as has been done here.

Pattern #11, Handwarmers. I'm not a fingerless glove fan, but I must admit these are kind of cute, and probably a good compromise for a parental-child conflict regarding what the child will wear on a nippy morning. And I bet they stay cleaner than mittens do, and are more likely to remain on and therefore less likely to get lost.

Pattern #12, Legwarmers. Legwarmers do look cute on little girls. Do check with the little girl they're for before you knit though, and inquire as to as their current status among her social circle: in or out?

Pattern #13, Satchel. Love this satchel, which has a great shape and seems very well designed. It's an absolute necessity to line a knitted bag of this sort (you may want to add a sturdy interlining if the pattern doesn't call for it) and you can pick a fun, coordinating fabric as has been done here.

Pattern #14, Fox Boot Toppers. I've made fun of boot toppers in reviews before, but I think they were all supposedly intended to be worn by grown women. It does seem like a different ball game when they're on a little girl; they look fun and cute.

Pattern #15, Pencil Case. This pencil case is quite pretty, and I see it's been made to match the satchel that appeared above. Do make sure that whatever fabrics and yarns you choose for this project are machine washable, as pencil cases get grubby and ink-stained.

Pattern #16, Purse. Now this is a pattern that can be used to advantage by females of all ages. Very cute, and it should hold your coins or what have you securely.

Pattern #17, Jacket with Pattern Border. I very much like this pattern, which is a fresh use of fair isle patterns and would suit most women and most wardrobes. Make this in your favourite colour combination and you'll be able to slip it on over a number of your outfits.

Pattern #18, Boxy Jumper. I love the pattern on this sweater, but not the shape. The name of this design tells you everything you need to know, doesn't it? The inclusion of the word "boxy" in clothing description never bodes well. It's like the time I was couch shopping with my mother and she insisted we check out a store we happened by called "Excellent Furniture", even though I told her no good could come from our visiting a furniture store named Excellent Furniture. Nothing, that is, but in-jokes that are still funny 12 years later.

Pattern #19, Brocade Jacket. I was just complaining the other day in the last post of my Twentieth Century Series about the lack of intricate patterning in today's patterns compared to those of the nineties, so it's lovely to see something like this, with a rich pattern and great finishing details. I'm not crazy about the colourway, but that's just personal preference. I think it's a smart idea for Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine to style it this way, to encourage people to think out of the box in terms of what can be done with colour.

Pattern #20, Kelim Sweater. I am so not finding this appealing, but then the colourway is unfortunate and the shoulders are dropped, and both of those can be changed. Surely we can enjoy intricate colourwork in our knitwear while leaving dropped shoulders back in the nineties where they belong, along with some other unfortunate fads, such as Vanilla Ice.

Pattern #21, Elf Onesie. This is cute, but do you really want to go to all that work to make something your baby can only wear for the month of December? I suppose if you plan it right you can have it fit baby as a Halloween costume as well as for Christmas events (though it looks a little Christmassy for Halloween), but even so that seems like a lot of knitting for a special occasion outfit.

Pattern #22, Reindeer Onesie. I like this even better than the Elf Onesie, but again... that's a lot of work for an outfit that won't get worn very much. I'd say get a crazy indulgent childless aunt or uncle to knit it for your baby, but I am a crazy indulgent childless aunt, and I wouldn't do it.

Pattern #23, Holly Wreath. Now here's an item worth the work it will take, because you can use it Christmas after Christmas for years. This really looks fantastic, and I'm especially impressed by how real it looks to a glance.

Pattern #24, Christmas Chains. I can't say I care for pattern, but then I don't like paper chains either – they're the kind of things grade school students use their decorate their Christmas trees because it's easy and inexpensive and traditional rather than because they meet any kind of aesthetic standard. I can't see putting all that work and expense into that inelegant kind of decoration.

Pattern #25, Santa Dog Coat. Oh boy. I'm going to have to try to put aside my bias against knitting for pets for this one. This is a very clever design that's obviously been made with great care and I suppose it will amuse all your Christmas party guests no end, but be warned that your dog will know it's being laughed at, and that he or she may not like that at all, which may cause some retaliatory peeing.

Pattern #26, Heirloom Christmas Stocking. Cute stocking.

Pattern #27, Christmas Tree. This is cute. I think it would work best in a country/craftsy type décor.

Pattern #28, Entrelac Hot Water Bottle Cover. This will come in handy for those Christmases when the furnace breaks down. If you regularly use a hot water bottle and care to take the time to knit it its own sweater, I'd recommend a different colourway so it can be used all winter long.

Pattern #29, Cabled Cravat. I was going to say I didn't like this, but I think I'm put off by the way this casual, heavy scarf has been thrown on over a suit, where it really doesn't belong. I can easily imagine it working over a sweater and khakis, or with a pea coat and jeans.

Pattern #30, Double Breasted Coat. I'm not sold on this design, which though it has a certain classic appeal is a bit shapeless and too blah to appeal to a child, and won't look good when worn open.

Pattern #31, Contrast Band Sweater. This sweater is fine except for the two-tone colourblocking at cuffs and hem. It just looks as though the knitter ran out of yarn. I'd do them in a single colour.

Pattern #32, Cabled Scarf. You'll have to wear this "scarf" pinned, or it will fall off almost immediately. And I suppose it's nice to have a chance to wear one's shawl pins more often, but honestly this looks just like a scarf for which there wasn't enough yarn. I'd make it much longer and/or turn it in a cowl.

Pattern #33, Paloma Scarf. Classic textured scarf. I'd be inclined to fringe the edges, or crochet a border on them, because they do look a little unfinished as is.

A Ravelry Rivalry

Ravelry is an animated short, written, directed and animated by Kathryn Parker (AKA Evil Crochet Genius), about two crocheted and knitted neighbouring gardens and the rivalry that proves to be their undoing.

Knitting and Nesting Instincts

I'm not as a rule a proponent of knitting for pets, largely because a lot of knitwear for pets is horrific, and it doesn't seem to me to be a very good use of resources to make something that's not only completely useless but that'll make you look like a crazy person. Very often your pet will loathe being outfitted in knitting anyway — a lot of domesticated animals know very well when they're an object of ridicule, and they don't like it. But as with every rule, there are exceptions, the most notable "knitting for animals" exception being that a lot of animal shelters and rescue operations have a real need for knitted and crochet items for the animals they are trying to save. If you're an animal lover who wants to knit things for charity, you might consider knitting various things for your local animal shelter instead of for your pet.

One item that animal shelters and wild animal rescue organizations often need are nests for baby animals. They need a lot of them because the nests need to be changed frequently for hygienic purposes. (Fortunately the knitted or crocheted nests can be washed, and lining the nest's bottom with a paper towel helps keep the nest cleaner.) Shelters need nests in different sizes to accommodate different species (from the size of a half-soda can, up to a size of a preemie hat), and because baby animals need a snug nest to keep them from flailing about too much before their limbs are strong enough, which can cause them to develop crooked limbs.

Some other specifications for baby nests:

- the nest must hold a bowl shape on its own (an actual preemie hat won't work);
- yarn should not be too fuzzy as the babies can get their tiny feet or claws stuck in the fuzz;
- bowls should be knitted double- or triple-stranded;
- stitches should be very tight and dense so that little legs don't slip through them and get stuck, which can cause injuries.

Nests make good projects for beginning or not particularly skilled knitters as it doesn't matter if they are crooked or have mistakes in them. They're small and quick to knit. They're also a good stash busting project, as colour doesn't matter, and tough, washable acrylic yarns are perfect for these projects. You can find crochet and knitting nest patterns on the Virginia Beach SPCA website, and the knitting pattern has its own Ravelry page.

If you'd like other options for animal rescue knitting, All Natural Pet Care has a lengthy list of ideas and accompanying links to free patterns for other items to make for shelter animals, such as blankets, beds, and toys that can accompany the animal into its eventual adoptive home, making the transition easier, or things like sweaters that can be used to keep a partly bald animal warm (dogs and cats are often shaved because of fur matting or medical procedures, and birds sometimes lose their feathers from illness or stress), or booties to protect injured paws.

Because my readers are international, rather than search out a number of pet shelters and outline their needs, I am recommending that if you are interested in knitting for rescue animals that you contact your local shelter or animal rescue organization and ask them what their needs and specifications are. They'll be glad of your efforts, the animals in crisis that receive your work will be a little more comfortable because of you, and your own pet will be all the happier for not having to wear, say, a little knitted blond Marilyn Monroe wig and white halter dress.

Tunics and Tapestries: Selected Knitting Patterns from 1990-1999

So here we are at the tenth and last post in my series of posts on selected patterns from each decade in the 20th century — the post for the 1990s. (You can see all the other posts in the series here.) I can't say I'm sorry the series is completed. I have enjoyed researching and writing these posts quite a lot, but they've also been easily the most time intensive of any posts I've written for this blog, even more so than the knitting magazine review posts, which generally take about three hours each to write. I also haven't been all that satisfied with the 20th century posts. I wanted them to be a selection of the best and most currently wearable knitwear designs each decade had to offer, but instead they were usually just the best I could come up with out of what few period knitting patterns were available online, and I too often felt as though I were scraping the bottom of the barrel. I do hope, and even expect, that as time goes on more vintage knitwear designs will become readily available online, so perhaps at some later date I'll get to write the kind of vintage knitting pattern posts I had in mind.

Now, about this post. When it came to researching the 1990s patterns, I found it quite the trip down memory lane. I was sixteen when the nineties dawned and I remembered all the looks I came across, and had worn many of them myself. Leggings with tunics? I think I spent half the nineties in leggings with an oversized shirt or sweater over top, and have fond memories of how comfortable that outfit was. Cropped jackets with palazzo pants? I have unfond memories of the time I nearly pitched down a flight of concrete steps behind the office building of the publishing house I worked at when I was twenty because I caught the toe of my shoe in one hazardously wide pant leg. Colour blocking? Yes, I think I had a colour-blocked dress. Granny skirts with a denim jacket and boots? Check. Plaid flannel shirts and cut-offs? Uh huh. I wasn't grunge, and I don't think many of my friends would have thought of themselves as into grunge, and yet we all dressed that way. And when I looked specifically at the knitting designs, I not only found a great many I'd seen before but a number that I'd made myself.

Looking at nineties knitwear patterns from the perspective of someone living in 2013, I find there's still a lot of merit in the designs. My greatest complaint about them is their size. The oversized, dropped shoulder sweater, a hold over from the 1980s, was still in for the first half of the nineties, and though it may have made nineties wear comfortable it also made it terribly unflattering. However, though nineties knitwear may need reshaping the stitch work and colour work can be quite inspired. I regret that we don't see the accomplished and intricate texture and pictorial designs so common in the early nineties much these days. During the course of my research for this post I actually took a little girl's fish-themed knitted dress pattern from 2013 off my to do list and replaced it with a nineties' era little girl's fish-themed dress pattern, because it was just no contest as to which was the better design.

This is DKNY's Shetland Lace Pullover, originally published in Vogue Knitting, Spring/Summer 1990, and reprinted in the Vogue Knitting Fall 2007 issue, and now available as a $6(USD) download. I ran across a number of lace tunic patterns when I was researching this post, and I remember making one for myself, from a different pattern, in lavender, back in 1993. This lace tunic pattern is the most beautiful of any I found, though it's also the most enormous. I'd cut it down to a standard fit and fix the dropped shoulders.

Here we see a child's version of the tunic and leggings and outfit, by Gayle Bunn, which appeared in Vogue Knitting's Winter 1990-91 and Kids Fall/Winter 1993 issues. I made this embroidered sweater and Juliet cap (though not the leggings) for one of my nieces when she was five or six. Both of her younger sisters also had their respective turns at wearing it when they got old enough.





This Tapestry Afghan, designed by Nicky Epstein for Vogue Knitting's Winter 1991/1992 issue, (and reprinted in the Vogue Knitting American Collection, has long been in my "when I break both legs" pattern file. You see what I mean when I say I regret that we don't really see this kind of intricate pictorial design today? To be fair, we didn't have many pieces like this back then, either. This is one stunning, one-of-a-kind creation.

This is Donna Karan's Enchanted Forest Cardigan, from Vogue Knitting's Fall 1992 issue. Vogue Knitting has reprinted it four times and it's now available as a $6(USD) download. It looks divinely warm and comfortable (and who can resist the appeal of an enchanted forest?), but again I would cut it down to just slightly oversized and fix the dropped shoulders.

The Leaf Motif Pullover, designed by Anne Denton for Vogue Knitting's Fall 1993 issue, is another beautifully complex and textured nineties knit.

This Shaped Tweed Jacket, designed by Adrienne Vittadini for Vogue Knitting's Fall 1995 issue, still looks just as sharp a cut today as it did when published, although the colour could probably stand to be updated. We've reached 1995 in our pattern retrospective and the oversized look was passé by that point. This pattern is available as a $6(USD) download.

This Climbing Ivy afghan pattern, from Knitting Digest Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 2, March 1996, and which is available for free, looks very nineties to me in a way I can't quite explain. I think it's the mixing of different patterns (checks with lace with a floral) that mimics the kind of collage-type prints we had back then. Printed fabric is very often as definitively of its own time as though it were date stamped. A few years ago I used to be puzzled by a former co-worker's outfits as the fabric they were made from were unmistakably vintage nineties yet the cut was very 2011. Finally I asked her about it and she told me she bought many of her clothes from a company that fashioned new clothes out of unsold old stock bought from other companies.

The nineties had a lot of the timeless fair isle pattern sweaters that every decade since the twenties did. If time travel were possible, this child's Faux Fair Isle cardigan, from the Interweave Fall 1996 issue, could be published at any time from 1930 to yesterday and no one would ever know it was a 1996 pattern. This pattern is available as a $5(USD) download.

This is the Brick Walk Vest from Knitting Digest Magazine, Vol. 19 No. 1, January 1997, and is available as a free pattern. I think I'd want to go with a more subtle colourway to update this vest for a 2013 version.

This is the Russian Jacket, originally a nineties pattern, which has been published in Rowan's Greatest Knits: 30 Years of Knitted Patterns from Rowan Yarns. Love the tapestry detail on the collar and cuffs. I'd want to do it in a sharp main colour instead of that oatmeal, scale down the jacket slightly, and fix the dropped shoulders.

Circular vs. Straights

Skacel Collection, Inc., has decided to show us how much faster a knitter can knit on an Addi Turbo Circular needle compared to straight needles. Speeds may appear faster in the video than they really are, especially given that neither contestant seems to actually have any idea how to knit.

Scritchy's To Do List and Other Knitting Fables

Oliver always liked to have a nice studio portrait taken of him and Peaches to use on their Christmas cards. Peaches could only be thankful that this year's shot wasn't as bad as that of the last three years. She was still planning on knocking over and breaking the 8" x 10" framed photo Oliver put in the living room as usual.

Sometimes it had been too long between brushings and Jasper couldn't bear to face the world.

"Can you take me back to the shelter, pleeeeease? Or just abandon me on the side of the road somewhere. At this point, I'm not picky."

Lavinia's person had a passion for Edwardiana and liked to dress Lavinia up in lace. Lavinia yakked up a hairball on said lace as often as possible.

After getting his new hamster house, Scritchy mentally made out his to do list for the day:

1) Sleep in house all day.
2) Eat house at night.
3) Bite owner while she was cleaning up the resulting blue droppings.

Lucky had always felt he was a lion trapped in a cat's body.

Anna had taken the phrase "purse dog" a little more literally than Mickey thought necessary.

"Maybe I shouldn't have peed on her last four boyfriends."

Nothing made Sprig and Sprog feel closer than wearing their matching sweaters. Unless it was sniffing each other's butts.

"Turn me into a Koopa, will you? I am totally hitting 'reset' on your game the next time you play Super Mario."