My Favorite Knitting Magazines

Interweave Knits - This magazine is hands-down my favorite and the one to which I actually subscribe. Overall, I feel the designs are more consistently to my liking. They strike a good balance between classic and modern. There is always a nice range of simple to challenging patterns. While the majority are for women's garments, they do provide a selection of other types of projects as well, including smaller accessories, men's items, and home decor. I also like the format of keeping the patterns and the photos of the knitted items together. One big point for me is that the pictures are of real people in real settings. The models are attractive in a natural way without heavy makeup, outrageous hairstyles, or other gaudy clothing and accessories. Whether interior or exterior settings, the background doesn't overwhelm the foreground. What this all boils down to is that you don't have to look past a slew of distractions to see whether or not the item is something you'd like to make. Another nice touch is that the designer's name is always big and bold right at the top of the page -- you never have to search through the fine print to find it.

Vogue Knitting - After reading the previous review, you may wonder why I also like this magazine. (If you are familiar with them both, you probably recognized that this is the magazine I was unfavorably contrasting to that one.) All I can say is that many of the same designers appear in both, and if I can manage to look past all the distractions, I find patterns I like here as well. Sometimes they are still a little too "vogue" for me though.

Family Circle Easy Knitting - This magazine is aptly titled "easy knitting" with simple designs that run the gamut from traditional to trendy. It also earns the "family" in its title with more designs for men and children. The models here don't have the natural realness of those in Interweave Knits, but they certainly aren't the high fashion divas from Vogue Knitting either. The tiny "plus crochet" at the end of the full title is represented as well with some cute designs in that medium.

tags: knitting