A bit of a mixture of the stuff swimming round my brain today.

The Winter issue of Yarn Forward magazine is finally out! And my Zippy socks, which I knit last summer, are in it:

(Link to the magazine on my Patterns page.)

Kerrie has worked so hard to produce an alternative to the mainstream UK knitting magazines, which just aren’t interested in progressing further or providing patterns that might be a bit challenging or different. Having to produce this magazine herself with a tiny staff is a huge job, and not helped with problems with printers and the Royal Mail. At least the former of these problems will be resolved with the next issue.

I feel that it is incredibly important to support independent publications like these, because what are we left with otherwise? The mainstream magazines are there because knitting is popular. There is already a downturn in the sales of knitting yarn in the UK because the novelty yarn scarves are losing their appeal – amazing, but true… Once a knitting magazine is no longer viable, rest assured that the publisher will just move on to the next craft craze. If the real knitters don’t do something for other knitters, then there will be nothing left. And much as I love Interweave Knits, having a home-bred magazine is just a bit more special.

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The shawl keeps growing and is just a bigger version of what it was last week, so not really much point in taking a photo, but I am plodding on with it, and when something exciting happens, like the edging, photos will appear!

I have also finished one stripey sock from my Middle Earth Yarns self striping yarn:

It was a nameless colourway, so I have dubbed it “Starfleet” because I watched a lot of season 1 of ST:TNG on DVD while knitting it and the colours reminded me of the medical and command uniform colourways. I don’t know when I’ll get around to knitting the second sock as it’ll be put on hold til my Sockapalooza sock knitting is done, but it’s lovely yarn to knit with and it’s also the most comfortable odd sock I’ve ever had!