I've noticed that I really, truly post about knitting once a week. It's not intentional, it's just how it works out somehow.
Anyhooo...the latest Knitter's mag arrived before I left for Miami, in a plastic sleeve that shrieked "Don't Let This Be Your Last Issue!" I took it with me and thumbed through it in the hotel. Oh yeah, it's gonna be my last issue. I can't remember the last time I saw anything in Knitter's I wanted to make, but it's been, oh, at least a year, maybe longer. Once in a while they have a cute little accessory thingie that appeals to me, but it's been years since I was inspired by their sweaters. This one is a new low in that department - there is some exceptionally ugly shit in this issue, and it's fairly obvious that none of it fits the models. What is with the giant loose sleeves covering the hands? Just what I want in a summer sweater, don't you? The trapeze tanks aren't too awful, but you have to be flat-chested to wear them or you look pregnant. I am not flat-chested and I really don't want to look pregnant.
Normally I will hang onto knitting magazines forever- good, bad or indifferent - but I think I'll make an exception for this one. It's going directly to the recycling bin.
I was too exhausted yesterday to do much of anything, but I tidied the house, laundered, chased cat hair, and worked my way down the top-down cardigan. I am more than halfway down the body, and I'm trying to decide between buttons and a zipper. I'm thinking zipper.
I really want to cast on something red, out of that red Lion Brand (sorry Caroline) Cotton-ease, but I'm not sure whether I want to do the old standard Shapely Tank
or design something myself via Sweater Wizard. I'm leaning toward the Shapely Tank at the moment. I'm also toying with the idea of a really bright striped tank, also via the stash. Though temps are only in the 50s out there at this moment, summer is right around the corner for us. I need to focus on small, cute and wearable projects.
Target and the gym, more cleaning, and cast-on a tank. Yep, that sounds like the plan for today. Time to hoist my tired butt from this chair and get moving.
I got my new Knitters along with a notice that my subscription expires after the next issue. I'm thinking of letting it die a painless (to me) death because the quality of the magazine has gone down in the last year or two. My Interweave Knits has also expired but I think I'll re-up with that one.
ReplyDeleteI have been buying IK by the issue, my subscription lapsed a while back. I'm not sure I want to subscribe to any of them lately.
ReplyDeletePretty much agree totally on the Knitter's, but I had to laugh - I have already started the Trapeze tank (first thing I've made from that magazine in 5 years). However, I'm flat-chested AND pregnant, so perhaps we don't think that differently after all...
ReplyDeleteDana
I think it's a great summer maternity top, I just don't want to wear one when I am 46, single and seeking date-able men. It's kind of a turn-off, I think....
ReplyDeletetsk, tsk. no need to apologize for L*on brand. so long as it isn't so stiff that it stands in the corner and mocks you, nor so hairy and neon that you think it's the shade of Andy Warhol come to visit and obsess...
ReplyDeletetotally agree with you about knitters. they have been into potato sack chic for quite some time now. someone should forcibly introduce them to the concepts of the female waist and tits... oh. and if you're thinking stripes, show me the color...i wanna see.
Open your mind to the L*on Brand, it does not all suck! Cotton-ease is a really nice yarn - cotton-acrylic (stop gagging, there are plenty of expensive brands with the same blend) and it's delightful to knit, and not as hard on my hands as pure cotton. My gripe is that it mostly comes in "child colors" - Easter egg and jellybean combos. However, I can use that to my advantage with a turquoise/bright yellow/mint green striped tank, or the one that really attracts me, hot orange/pink/red. I'm thinking a simple v-neck shaped tank via Sweater Wizard, in wide ribs to give it even more body. No photos of the yarn combos til the weekend, my camera flash is not kind to yarn.
ReplyDeletemissy C, I have l*on brand all over the house. their Grace is a good sub for Rowan's equivalent microscopic gauge cotton even it the palette is more limited. and have something, it might even be cotton ease, around here that was going to be that stappy v-necked tank from the cover of last summer's Vogue Knitting. I still might make it, btw. mind is open, just snarly about misrepresentation and organized tackiness. not to worry.
ReplyDeleteI think Grace is Patons (the other LB) ;-) but yeah, some of it is crap, some of it is really not bad at all. I fondled one of the Joann's house brands today - damned if I can remember which - and thought it was a nice silky totally unnatural fiber that would be really cute as a sash/belt. It all has its true calling - even Homespun is a kickass cat bed.
ReplyDelete