Bergère de France Magazine 176: A Review

Bergère de France has released magazine 176. Ayons un regard sur il, allons-nous?

#01 Jacquard Sweater and #02 Beanie. Very cute sweater and hat, though I would want to rework the cat design to make it more detailed and finished-looking. It's a little half-assed as it is.

#03 Hooded Jacket. Nice little jacket, and that texture both looks good and would feel very cuddly and comforting for a baby to wear.

#04 Bootee Slipper Socks. These are more than a little too clunky-looking for my tastes.

#05 Jacket and #06 Leggings. Nice little jacket and leggings. The textured yarn really makes the jacket. The leggings would be a great scrap yarn project.





#07 Crochet Beanie and #08 Garter Stitch Knitted Beanie. Does anyone really need patterns for these? And if one did, wouldn't one just find a free one on Ravelry?

#09 Hooded All-in-One. Useful item for early fall days.

#10 Bobble Beanie. The side pom pom is such a cute look for little girls.

#11 Mittens. I don't think this yarn is really suitable for mittens, as it's so bulky. Also... these pictures make these mittens look less like mittens than they do like a pair of rude gestures.

#12 Blanket. Dead simple design, but it is finished-looking and effective.

#13 Knitted Cubes. Would a baby even play with these?

#14 Cardigan. This is so simple and yet has a certain style.

#15 Cardigan. Not a bad piece, and the buttons are really cute, but that neckline does look a little unfinished.

#16 Sleeveless Dress. This one's just a little weird, as though the designer decided to pick up a pair of knitting needles and open a cheap bottle of wine and see what happened.

#17 Double Breasted Jacket. This wasn't a bad concept, but the execution is far too crude to make the end product work.

#16 Beanie and Bootees. You can get much better patterns than this for free on Ravelry.

#19 Baby Wedge. Here's a time-saving tip: if your baby isn't ready to sit up alone, use whatever pillows you have around your home to prop him or her up instead of making something like this. When the baby becomes able to sit unassisted, you can return the pillows to their usual places and not have some white elephant of a pillow sitting around. And with all that time you saved, you get to knit something interesting. Now that's win-win.

#20 Cable Stitch Crossover Cardigan. The cabled pattern looks weirdly off-centre and the button band doesn't sit well.

#21 Sleeping Bag. I don't know how pratical this is. It seems to me that a sleeping bag ought to cover the arms as well to reliably keep a child warm, but then maybe babies would rather have their arms free...? As it is, this looks to me like a tank top from one of those frustration-type dreams, in this case one in which you're trying to get dressed but find all your clothes are sealed up at the bottom.

#22 Sailor Style Top. This design looks less than half-finished.

#23 High Waisted Trousers. All I can say about these pants is that they'll be perfect for your baby to wear if he gets cast in Les Misérables.

#24 Bootees and Beanie. Another rather crude, unfinished looking design. Bergère de France would be better off putting fewer and better patterns in their magazine issues. "Designs" like this are a little too much like filler.

#25 Back Buttoned Top. Look, I'm all for the idea of quality sex education for children, but depicting a sperm on the front of your baby's sweater is maybe a tad overzealous.

#26 Cable Sweater. The cable design on this looks a little muddled.

#27 Hat and Sweater. These do have some appeal, but they're another unfinished and amateurish-looking design.

#28 Hat and Cardigan. These two items are much like the previous two just above, and the same comment applies.

#29 Blanket. The first few baby blankets I made were nearly exactly like this one. I've moved on to better, more complex baby blanket designs now, but this isn't a bad project for a beginner. But... you really don't need to buy this pattern.

#30 Hooded Jacket. Not bad. It would look better with larger buttons.

#31 Trousers. Another sub-minimal design. I suppose it's wearable enough though.

#Bootees. It's difficult to tell from this picture exactly what's happening with the tops of these bootees, but they look fine if very simple.

#33 Coat. Very simple but adequate design.

#34 Back Buttoned Top. Another very simple design, but the accent colours give it the visual interest it needs.

#35 Bootees. Very pretty little bootees.

#36 Beanie, and #37 Snood. Simple, presentable designs.

#38 Cable Stitch Coat. This is pretty nice on the whole, though I do have my concerns about the collar. It looks okay, if a little odd "done up" as it is here, but will look bad when worn open.