knitting "zines"
First - is the term zines still in use, or am I a tool for using that phrase? I guess I don't care, as long as you know to what I am referring. The three main ones I am aware of are Knitty, MagKnits and Spun. (if there are others, let me know)
As far as I am concered they are all great - free articles, free patterns, what more could one ask for? You don't HAVE to knit the patterns you see that you don't like, you don't even have to go check them out if you know you consistently do not dig what you see there. All of them have always had at least one pattern that I have found appealing in each issue. That is up until now. Go check out the latest version of Spun. They had a VERY promising 1st edition back in the spring - with a nice tank, and a couple other interesting little projects. This issue....not so much.
Now, I've seen Knitty catch a lot of flack in certain areas of the blogosphere for being a little too trendy/over-the-top/useless etc. And I would agree that for me many of their designs fall into that category - after all, I'm a 30-something-relatively-new-mom-who-spends-her-non-work
-time-chasing-a-grahm-cracker-paste-encrusted-toddler (they do have a check box for that on the census form, did you know?), so I'm not going to spend my valuable knitting time working on something like a Cleaves - that would be silly. (and in all honesty, I have never actually been even remotely up on the trends, so even if I were still a low-digit-childless-20-something, I wouldn't be up for making/wearing one of those)
So, why hasn't Spun caught any such flack for these or this? These go way past any silliness that I've seen in knitty, don't you think? I am generally not a snarky person by nature. Well, OK I am, but I like to pretend not to be, so I don't like to allow my "blog-face" to get snarky. However, if any pattern I have ever seen in one of these places has merited snarkiness its got to be one of those.
There - the mask is off, behold my snarky self in all its glory! Am I the only one who thinks these are just plain ridiculous - the hotpants, who needs knitted short-shorts, and rainbow ones to boot? And the hair band - do we really need a pattern for that? Come on gals I think we can manage that one on our own.
Thanks for letting me get my snark on. Your mild-mannered PumpkinMama will be back soon.
As far as I am concered they are all great - free articles, free patterns, what more could one ask for? You don't HAVE to knit the patterns you see that you don't like, you don't even have to go check them out if you know you consistently do not dig what you see there. All of them have always had at least one pattern that I have found appealing in each issue. That is up until now. Go check out the latest version of Spun. They had a VERY promising 1st edition back in the spring - with a nice tank, and a couple other interesting little projects. This issue....not so much.
Now, I've seen Knitty catch a lot of flack in certain areas of the blogosphere for being a little too trendy/over-the-top/useless etc. And I would agree that for me many of their designs fall into that category - after all, I'm a 30-something-relatively-new-mom-who-spends-her-non-work
-time-chasing-a-grahm-cracker-paste-encrusted-toddler (they do have a check box for that on the census form, did you know?), so I'm not going to spend my valuable knitting time working on something like a Cleaves - that would be silly. (and in all honesty, I have never actually been even remotely up on the trends, so even if I were still a low-digit-childless-20-something, I wouldn't be up for making/wearing one of those)
So, why hasn't Spun caught any such flack for these or this? These go way past any silliness that I've seen in knitty, don't you think? I am generally not a snarky person by nature. Well, OK I am, but I like to pretend not to be, so I don't like to allow my "blog-face" to get snarky. However, if any pattern I have ever seen in one of these places has merited snarkiness its got to be one of those.
There - the mask is off, behold my snarky self in all its glory! Am I the only one who thinks these are just plain ridiculous - the hotpants, who needs knitted short-shorts, and rainbow ones to boot? And the hair band - do we really need a pattern for that? Come on gals I think we can manage that one on our own.
Thanks for letting me get my snark on. Your mild-mannered PumpkinMama will be back soon.
posted by Pumpkinmama at Thursday, June 09, 2005
3 Comments:
I think it's morphed into e-zine--at least for those mags published on line.
The hairband it a great starter project and/or stash buster, although I'd just knit it in the round, using K1,P1 ribbing, and ditch the whole tail idea. So, essentially, I just created a whole new project.
As a 30-something-childless-boring person, I think that Knitty usually has a fair number of patterns that would suit me in every issue. I think they have those "out-there" patterns (like Cleaves and that stupid flame skirt) to keep the young-uns interested in knitting. My big complaint about Knitty is that many of their patterns are pretty simple to knit. Even the so-called piquant patterns seem easy to me. But I suppose that's part of appealing to the young-uns :)
And I'm not a fan of Spun at all!
you make a very good point; till now (or a few minutes ago) I hadn't heard of "Spun." I need to return to the pages and see what else they have patterns for, but based on those two, I'm not that impressed! In general I shy away from patterns (I'm hoping to grown into them someday) and free online pattern resources help me to get ideas that I can play with, for free. I looked at the entire section of knitting books at the major bookstore in town this weekend, but couldn't justify an entire book for a single (or two) patterns! As much as I loved a few of the ideas, I wouldn't have worn the sweater/garment as it was shown without making some major changes - maybe that's why I keep sitcking with pretty simple sweaters?
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