Review Of New Magazine - Your Crochet & Knitting

Image courtesy of Practical Publishing

Practical Publishing, who also produce Knit Now, got in touch to suggest I review the latest addition to their ranks, Your Crochet & Knitting. Whilst the copy of the first issue was a gift my review is impartial.

Go to your local newsagents and the shelf for craft magazines is crowded. My first thought about the publication of another knitting magazine for beginners was do the newsstands really need it?

It's a competitive market with both the Yarn Forward and Knit Today titles folding in the last few years. What could make YC&K stand out amongst the throng?

At a cost of £8.99 it's certainly one of the most expensive craft magazines on the market but that price includes not only the paper copy but a kit containing six balls of acrylic yarn, a pair of wooden knitting needles, a crochet hook, sewing needle and black thread (you have to provide your own toy stuffing).

The magazine is aimed at beginners who want to dabble in both knitting and crocheting. There are quite a few patterns that can be made with the included yarn including a blanket, baby bootees and a woman's hat and mitts, but the star attraction are the Mr. Men and Little Miss official toys.

I'm a beginner crocheter and therefore for essence of speed I decided it would be quicker to test one of the knitting patterns instead. They are described as 'easy, quick and incredibly cute' and hit two out of three of those descriptions.

It took me, a usually speedy knitter, about four hours to knit, embroider and sew up the Little Miss Princess toy. Not the quickest knit it must be said, but the pattern was easy and the end result is certainly cute.

My beady eye recognised the Little Miss Princess and Mr Funny knitting patterns from a supplement that came with Knit Now magazine around Christmastime. I'd kept it to keep for the future and dug it out to double-check. The crochet patterns are new to me though.

At 68 pages the magazine is rather short but it certainly packs a lot of projects in - 39 in total. As well as the patterns, which include a blanket craft-along to be continued in issue 2, there's a round up of craft news, tips from Toft's Kerry Lord on sewing up toys, a review of baby yarns, giveaways and basic knitting and crochet instructions.

So is the magazine worth it? I'm not usually a knitted toy fan but the kit and pattern to make the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters swayed it for me - they will make great gifts for my friends' children and I think are worth the cost of the well-photographed magazine. I'd like to see patterns to knit flowers with the free gift yarn in the future.

It'll be interesting to see what's in issue 2!