Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine

I’ll be frank, I don’t knit and I honestly can’t picture myself as someone who will anytime soon because it takes tremendous talent and patience and that’s already a sign - I may not qualify! But I love, and I mean love, knitted goods and yarn. I look at blankets like this one from Cosas in Sweden or even this scarf from Papa Stour in Scotland I feel positively smitten. Whenever I’m around yarn in all its glorious colors I experience a certain weakness (Oscar Wilde once said I can resist anything except temptation - that’s me), like when I spot cupcakes or puppies or pretty books and magazines. When I was single, I had crushes constantly on every man with either glasses or an accent, if they were English with dark hair and blue eyes with a gorgeous flat in London, all the better… he he. I digress. Point is, this cupcake, puppies, pretty boys and pretty books helplessness that I’ve explained is the same that I felt a few days ago when I came across the Spring/Summer issue of Debbie Bliss - knitting magazine. I’ll share just a glimpse here to entice you… Gosh you’d think I was selling something but I’m not, I’m merely trying to rope you in to my magazine obsession and the fact that I am now having to justify why a girl like me who does not knit is purchasing, in fact, a knitting magazine. Oh help me.

The photographs inside are so lovely and I especially enjoyed her personal favorites spotlighted throughout like fabrics, books, collections, recipes… It’s all very sweet, charming and of course - girly. All of the photography, I believe, was shot by English photographer Richard Burns. Most of the styling is by Julie Mansfield. The layout of the magazine is beautiful, very clean and uncomplicated with an attention to details like pretty little drawings, subtle patterned backgrounds, pretty font styles and colors (mostly pink, gray and blue), and there’s even a travel diary documenting some of the spots that Debbie recently visited like Florence and Bath, England. I also like that the magazine is only produced quarterly and that the price per issue is $8, this may seem expensive but it’s not consider that the issue is so carefully put together and includes many great patterns in the back. I’d rather have quality over quantity any day, I want work I can feel, believe in, connect to… and for me to connect to a knitting magazine, a subject I honestly have no interest in, makes me believe even more in the power of beautiful, well-crafted, things. If they are a work from the heart, they often reach out beyond even their niche market to attract others for reasons that do not even have to do with their overall subject.

I like how the magazine is written, how it feels, the size (it’s slightly wider than your standard magazine) and the purpose behind it — to help people craft their own gorgeous things using yarn. It’s getting people in touch with a hobby that can bestow peace and pleasure, but also in the end, a functional item with value. Beautiful!

(images: Debbie Bliss knitting magazine spring/summer 2009. Photographs by Richard Burns & styled by Julie Mansfield.)