Your Knitting Life Ceases Publication

Your Knitting Life, the two-year-old knitting magazine formerly known as Knitting Today, has announced that it will cease publication with the June/July 2012 issue, which is on newsstands now. Editor-in-chief Theresa Gonzalez, who has been with the magazine from the beginning, said in a statement on Facebook that she is “very saddened” by the decision by publisher Future Publishing to close the magazine.

“I believe we produced some great patterns from a very creative design and edit team,” she said. “Unfortunately, the company has decided to focus its efforts on other areas.”

Future’ Publishing’s craft portfolio includes Simply Knitting and the Knitter, two UK knitting magazines. Their only U.S. craft property is Crochet Today, the popular magazine on which Your Knitting Life was based.

It’s always sad to see publications go, particularly in the field of knitting. Here’s wishing the best to all involved in the magazine.

[Photo by Your Knitting Life.]

Next Pattern:

Beautiful people and beautiful sweaters combine in Lasse L. Matberg’s Viking Knits. The book includes more than 40 Scandinavian inspired knits for men, women and children featuring textured stitches and colorwork.

Matberg is known as The Viking and has worked as a chef, naval officer, fitness instructor and model, as well as being on a couple of reality TV shows. He comes from a long line of makers and his book was first published in Norwegian in 2021 and has since come out in an English version.

The book is divided into sections including everyday sweaters, knits for the great outdoors, stylish knitwear, Norse sweaters and accessories. Some of the patterns use the same designs in different versions for men, women and children. I counted seven projects rated for beginners, 19 for intermediate knitters and 17 for experienced knitters. The more difficult patterns tend to have allover colorwork or stitch patterning.

The pattern stitches and colorwork are shown in charts, with a little bit of text to tell you how to make the garment. Most of the book is sweaters, but there are also hats (sometimes coordinating with sweaters), scarves and a couple of sitting mats.

You can check out all the patterns on Ravelry. Some of my favorites are the more basic ones, such as the Power Sweater, a close-fitting (sized for men) ribbed sweater; the Heart Sweater, a raglan with allover lice stitch; and the Midsummer Sweater, with textured stripes and a henley neckline. I also like the Breeze designs (there are versions for men, women and children) that have colorwork diamonds on them.

Sizing on the garments varies, but there are six sizes for the men’s patterns (noted as small through XXL and then Lasse sized), six for women (XS to XL) and three for children (age 2-4, 6-8 and 10-12).

The yarns used in the book aren’t available in the United States but you can find suppliers here if you want to use the same yarns. Otherwise the book gives a lot of details about yarn content and gauge so you should be able to find good substitutes wherever you live.

If you have Norwegian or Scandinavian heritage or just like the look of cozy textured or colorful sweaters, this book is a lot of fun, and the eye candy is pretty great, too.

About the book: 192 pages, hardcover, 43 patterns. Published in English in 2023 by Search Press. Suggested retail price $29.95.

Comments

Gene Byrge says
July 26, 2012 at 10:40 am
I think the decision to cease publication is terrible. Some of the best patterns I’ve seen have been from this mag (when it was Knitting Today – why the name change? It doesn’t seem to have done any good….)
Any chance a US publisher will pick it up? I really hate to see it go….

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