Knit Now Inspirations

Back in November, I mentioned buying Issue One of Knit Now magazine and my love of the Autumn Forest Gloves pattern.  Since then I have sought out each edition... with some difficulty, as none of the "expected" shops have consistently had it on their shelves.  So I found it once at Asda, once at Tesco, once at RS Mccolls and now (Issue 4) at Morrisons (a single copy hidden at the back of the bottom shelf!).  I give up - I am going to subscribe!

I don't often take out a subscription.   I tried The Knitter for a year, but although I enjoyed the articles, the only items I ever knitted were the Baird neckwarmer and the Nexus socks.  Now what does this tell you?  Oh yes - I knit accessories!

And that is where Knit Now comes in, because it is devoted exclusively to smaller knits:  gloves, hats, socks, scarves, the occasional shawl, bags and baby items.

Licorice gloves by Sam Parfitt

Issue 3 was the one which really got me hooked.  Within 24 hours I had ordered the yarn to make two / three of the designs!   I NEVER do that!

All three handwear designs are knitted from a "palette pack" of sportweight yarn by Brown Sheep.

The Licorice Gloves are my absolute favourite, but I can definitely imagine wearing the Lotus Eater Mitts and gifting the Zena Mittens.  Another knitter on Ravelry has discovered that one Palette Pack is enough to knit both  the Licorice and Lotus Eater patterns, but I ordered an extra ball of the deep violet to allow me to make the Zena Mittens.  Probably not enough yarn for all three pairs, though, so at some point I will have to make a decision.

Zena Mittens

Lotus Eater Mitts

The other pattern in Issue 3 to catch my eye is a knitted Peter Pan collar - ooh!  This is high up the wish list too!

Ayli hat

As for Issue 4... I found it on Saturday and already I am itching to knit the Ayli hat:  a hat with windflaps and pigtails and buttons - yay! 

Skinny Scarf

Surprisingly, I also really like the super-simple Skinny Scarf, which is hard to see in the magazine itself, but is photographed more clearly on Ravelry here.
And there's a great hat from Woolly Wormhead's Bambeanies Book, the Moochie.

And some rather gorgeous Thistle Mittens and a beret which uses self-striping yarn in a stranded design, to great effect, the Eliza Day Tam.
As well as the patterns, I am impressed by the news and reviews pages.  Despite spending more hours a day on Ravelry than is strictly necessary, I come across lots of new-to-me items in every issue. 

Although all magazines rely on advertising to survive, the editor seems to have retained the right to showcase "big name spinner" patterns that she actually likes.  So there is a really cute Sublime baby sweater pattern, the Matelot (not linked to the magazine yet on Ravelry) and a versatile Sirdar beret "recipe".

All in all, I really like this publication.  I fear for its survival, though, because it has been so hard to find a copy each month.  It gets buried behind the bigger brasher knitting magazines and shops do not seem to have it on their regular list.  So I will subscribe... and hopefully the word will spread and it will still be around in another year :)