I just got two new knitting magazines in the mail! Yay!
I love getting magazines. They're like literary cookies, small, sugary, and not all that good for you. Knitting magazines are slightly different because they provide patterns, fiber and technique knowledge that you wouldn't easily be able to figure out on your own. But sometimes they're junky too.
I love the two magazines I got for different reasons. One is super artistic and usually contains at least one or two patterns I actually am interested in knitting. The other is not super artistic but has a ton of really good technique and fiber information. The problem is both have annoying features as well. And just because I'm kind of an angry woman I'm going to tell you about them.
The problem with the artistic magazine is that they are often so concerned about being artistic that the pictures don't actually show the knitting. I'm a person who really has to look at the picture to see what I'm trying to do. It's like the cover on the puzzle box, you need to see what the end result is supposed to be. They also have pattern problems, like mistakes, poorly written directions (hence the need for the good pictures), and unclear abbreviations. I also hate it when I have to flip through the magazine to find a special technique that's called for, or, (again with the pictures) to find the larger picture of the item I'm making.
I can't tell you about the problems with the patterns in the non-artistic magazine because I haven't made any of the items in it. That's the problem. The patterns are for ugly things that I don't want to make. They're getting better though, there was one sweater in this issue that I thought was cute, maybe there's hope.
