Wednesday 23 March 2016

Creative Knitting Spring & Summer 2016: A Review


Creative Knitting has released its Spring & Summer 2016 issue. Let's have a look at it.




Daphne. The construction of these flowers isn't bad at all, but I'd be attaching them to other items, such as a little girl's purse, rather than to shoes where they are going to become filthy in no time.





Modern Garden Tank. A very pretty and summery look. I wouldn't have thought embroidery could look so well on garter stitch.





Petals & Stripes. I like the stripes but am not sold on the petals. It's hard to make this kind of appliqué work on a grown woman as it tends to look kitschy.





Wildflower Purse. This looks like the kind of thing a little girl makes at craft camp and gives proudly to her mother, who receives it with an Academy Award-winning simulation of appreciation, never uses, and smuggles out of the house and off to a thrift store once her daughter has forgotten about it.





Electric Flower Socks. These would be the perfect thing to wear the next time you're cast for a 1980s Jane Fonda workout video. Don't forget to make yourself a matching headband.





Eyeglasses Case. This looks roughly made, and soft eyeglasses cases like this one don't actually do much to protect eyeglasses.





Regency Sweater. This is a very pretty and rather romantic look on the whole, but the rather wonky-looking wavy lines and beads at the neckline and cuffs aren't doing much for it. I'd nix the lines and stick with some simple beading.





Soirée Purse. Very pretty and finished-looking and something a little girl could carry with her best dress as well as being something a grown woman could easily use as an evening bag if made in colours to go with her evening wear. I'm imagining it done in black or a metallic.





Ruffled Cardigan. Quite attractive, and so well shaped that it sits perfectly.





Entwined Bolero. The description for this calls upon us to "re-engineer the cowl by making it part of a stylish, modern bolero". I'm not seeing how the word stylish applies here, and I'm not sold on the idea of combining the bolero and the cowl in principle, though I might like to see other attempts at it. It looks like a pain to get in and out of, for one thing. And what are we to call such a creation? The cowlero? The bocowl?





Blakefront Cardigan. Very pretty little item.





Lavender Sails. The lace design here is very good, but the lines of this piece have such an unfortunate foreshortening effect on the model that it looks as though her shoulders are sagging nearly to her waist. I'd tweak this so that the opening of the sleeves sits at cap sleeve level.





Golden Shores Shawl. Some lovely lacework in this piece.





Summer Swing Tee. This is acceptable design, but it definitely deserved a more attractive yarn.





Artisan Tunic. The tunic is well shaped, but the decorative stitching on it has an unfortunately crude look.





Upcycle Notions Case. A fun bag. The pattern descriptions suggests using old gauge swatches, but it could also be done with wool sweaters that are past being wearable.

1 comment:

  1. I like two or three of these, which is a high strike rate nowadays!

    ReplyDelete