Vogue Knitting 25 year special issue
Are the other knitters out there enjoying the Vogue Knitting 25th anniversary issue as much as I am? Wow. Great articles, interviews, photographs. I’m not one who knits from patterns in magazines but I buy every one, for inspiration. This one is just full of inspiring ideas and looks. I’m loving it.
Annie Modesitt (pronounce similar to Model-knit), who was my roommate at the Michigan Fiber Festival three years ago, designed a pattern they included in their top 10 hits of the last 25 years. How cool is that? I’m so happy for Annie. If you have the magazine, it’s photographed on pages 136 (first version, it was the front cover sweater in 2005) and 137 (silver anniversary colors). The design is called a twisted-float shrug but it looks like a sleeved sweater with the body constructed as a circle which centers on mid-back. Lots of folks have knit this one, and I’m sure they will be joined by more now. Cool!
I also am thoroughly enjoying the long-enough-to-satisfy chatty articlies/interviews with Knitting’s “Old Guard” and “New Guard.” Our beloved “Yarn Harlot,” Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, is included in the latter group. She always makes me laugh out loud, even as just part of a group being interviewed. Stephanie improves my quality of life in a real way.
I am enjoying the fashions here. Lily Chin has an elegant red lace (knitted) dress, Michael Kors has a cabled capelet which mysteriously is double-breasted and made of cashmere… a huge amount of money for a layer of fabric nobody will see, but a beautiful piece where no doubt substituting more affordable yarns will be no problem.
I’m also delighted at the number of tunic-length garments shown. I’m short-waisted and tunic length is very flattering on me. For a while the only garments ready-made in this length were maternity tops (I even gave in and bought a lightweight cotton maternity sweater once… nobody ever knew and I was definitely not expecting)!
The DKNY very-long cabled sweater originally shown in 1991 is made over beautifully as a minidress on page 138. I came of age when the model Twiggy was in vogue and the silhouette of this dress (and the photo styling) remind me of that time.
The issue is intriguing in that it has 11 “covers” though of course only one is on top front. Each features a specific yarn company and a design with their yarn in the “silver” theme. Great designs, especially the skacel “fairisle” stranded-colorwork black and silver mini dress. Wow. I swear I saw this dress at TNNA in Ohio and I loved it at first sight. Of course, I’d want it in brighter colors but the black/silver is spectacular.
Another cool feature is that they brought back instructions for a good number of old favorites. Some of these are impossible to find as back-issues on the used market, some are pricey that way. A notable example is the Map of the World Sweater shown on page 140. The charts for this are many so the words of the pattern are in the magazine, but you can either download the graphs/charts from Vogue or order them by mail. By doing this, they can put more photos in the magazine. I like this idea.
In the front “covers” section, they also have small photos of popular back-issue patterns which they are making available as single-copy patterns for pay, as downloads through http://vogueknitting.com. What a great idea! This can make a popular design available long after an issue is hard to find. I’m sure their contracts with their designers had to be re-discussed at the point where they did this, but as a designer I’d be thrilled to have my work become available for a longer period of time if it hit the public’s happy-button that long. Wonderful. (No, I have no idea what the contracts look like or how much they pay, and I am not in any way opening up a discussion of copyright here on my blog, OK? Just in case someone feels inclined to go there, you can find a very few Yahoo groups that might allow that discussion.)
I love magazines, any kind of knitting mag can make me happy. Color, sihlouette, new ideas, techniques and interviews all make me happy even if they detail features/styles that are not really my thing. I love the variety and inspiration. Even if you do not usually buy this knitting magazine… if you knit, and if you ever bought a knitting mag, I think you will want to make haste and get a copy of this one.
No, you will not like everything. It’s Vogue, you know? That means strong fashion statements and you are guaranteed to not want to wear at least half of it. But it’s inspiring and chock-full of designs and more, and the quality is better than ever. On this very hot day, I highly recommend a tall iced tea, a hammock and this magazine. What else could be better?
August 1st, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Hi, Lynn:
Yes, I’ve browsed through and left the “reading” parts for when I have time. It’s THICK.
I especially like Annie’s design in the new colors, and was so glad to see the map of the world sweater revisited. It was a stunner when it first appeared. I like the Mari Lynn Patrick ribbed design (26) to the “I might even wear it” level. One that I would love to knit but probably wouldn’t wear is Debbie Bliss’s cover-section cardigan (delicious cables). On many others, I see details I like (or don’t see details enough, in some of the dark photos). Good food for thought, and tons of it.
I thought it was very cool that they got all of the magazine’s editors together for a group photo.
August 1st, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Lynn, you definitely improve my quality of life. thanks so much for your blog updates. I will have to go to the BS and find this latest Vogue! Thanks for telling us about it. Now I must go and find it.
August 22nd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
I only just picked the issue up last night and while initially excited, found myself becoming increasingly less so as I flipped through it. The extra covers might pull in advertising $ for Vogue but I thought they looked silly and gimmicky. Also I save my Vogues and the extra covers tend to come unstapled and get lost when the issue is drug around in a knitting bag. I thought the covers contained some of the best designs in the issue and it was dissapointing to discover that even though I paid for the magazine, these patterns aren’t included. Tried to get on the Vogue site to check pattern pricing today and it’s “under construction”. Could they have timed it any worse?
The old patterns revisited, I consider wasted space. I already own the originals and when I pay for new patterns don’t expect to get something I already have in my pattern library. Don’t think the “reworkings” added much I couldn’t have come up with on my own, and in the case of the Perry Ellis sweater transformed a classic style into something I wouldn’t be caught dead in. Some nice scarves, but think I’ve knitted more scarves in the last couple years than an entire army could wear out in a lifetime of winters. So hoping there’s enough substance in the rest of the issue to qualify it as a Fall/Back to Sweater season Vogue.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Well Lynn, it’s now well into September and still no sign of Vogue Knitting here in Australia despite the fact that I’ve been asking my newsagent for weeks now. I finally gave up and decided to subscribe, only to find that the VK website is experiencing “technical difficulties”.
I’ve enjoyed reading your summary of this issue and look forward to the day I have this special issue in my possession!
September 12th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Lynn it’s now Sept 13 and it’s finally arrived in Australia. And it was well worth the wait!
I only started buying VK a couple of years ago so I didn’t mind seeing the old patterns revisited. In any case, there are far more patterns in this issue than usual so there’s still plenty of value for money.
From the limited time I had to pore over this last night I can see me knitting many of these designs (although I’ll feel the need to modify some of them) eg the Lily Chin dress but without sleeves for summer, Shirley Paden’s crimson sweater without the collar and I love the Michael Kors cape.
I’ve frogged the Silver Belle sleeves and started again; this time I got the sleeve chart to work for me and it’s looking great, in a chocolate brown colour.
Thank you for your comments about this issue, it will keep me happily knitting for a long time to come. I entirely agree about the inclusion of many tunic length garments, I’ll be knitting some of those as well.
And I haven’t even started on the articles yet!