When I mentioned that the Knitters and the Vogue Knitting
both came on the same day, I fully intended to write about both. But my exposition on Knitters grew too wordy,
as is my wont and so Vogue Knitting got pushed aside. I had every intention of returning to it
right away. But the call of the garden
has been strong, and as usual, life has intervened.
very interesting even though there are probably no more sweaters in this issue
than I would actually knit than I found in the Knitters.
Knitters Magazines. Not so Vogue Knitting,
which will definitely grace my shelves for many years to come. I cannot imagine not having these magazines
in my knitting room. I do love looking
through past issues, and although my collection is not complete — I am missing
a few of the early issues as I really wasn’t knitting then — I am quite
attached to it, whether or not I knit sweaters from the issues. Vogue doesn’t really have good technical
information all that often, but what I love about them is the way the combine
knitting and fashion. Vogue Knitting of
all the knitting magazines I have gotten, most consistently and successfully
combines knitting and fashion. Most of
the knitting magazines seem totally out of touch with the world of fashion,
kind of existing in a yarn-market vacuum. That may not be a completely bad thing. Most of us wear the same pretty basic kinds of things most days and
knitting magazines sometimes appeal to that. Fashion sometimes does silly
things, and yet I still find fashion endlessly fascinating and I love flipping
through the pages of Vogue Knitting. I sometimes wish that the knitting
magazines showed more work inspired by the more interesting things one can find
in the market. The eternal compromise
seems to be how to blend art and craft with fashion, style, and taste and still sell magazines (and advertising space).
This issue, Spring/Summer 2006, was interesting and
entertaining. There are several sweaters
I think are cute and nice. Unfortunately, a lot of the sweaters I find darling are just that,
darling. I don’t do darling very well,
or feminine, romantic or flirty – looks heavily represented in this issue. I can and do mix a little ethnic, boho,
sporty or dramatic in with fairly classic basics, I am not exactly a purely classic
kind of girl either but definitely not the feminine frilly type. I am more Armani than Ungaro. Throw in a bit of Gaultier, Yves Saint
Laurent (the original), Ralph Rucci and a touch of Dries Van Noten and Issey
Miyake and I would be in style heaven, or at least that is how I imagine
myself. I don’t think I actually pull
that off, more suburban matron if truth be told.
me. This issue is kind of like an Ungaro
collection, not style-wise, but because there are lots of things I love but
they aren’t me. Still it is entertaining
and feeds my fantasy life, if not my knitting life.
But what would I knit?
I guess boring is just my middle name.
And Yves Saint Laurent? He occasionally threw feminine looks in the mix, but they were so
combined with strict tailoring that frilly and girly rarely come to mind. I love the soft tailoring of Armani but I
sometimes miss the hard tailoring of Yves Saint Laurent and Gaultier. When I was younger that hard sharp tailoring fit well to my body, now that I am softer with more fluff, soft tailoring is nice. I still miss the lines and angles though.