As I spend most of my “free time” knitting, I don’t get much time to sit down and just read these days, so when Rose has a nap it’s a nice treat for me to have a cuppa and a read of something knitting-related.
I have been buying Interweave Knits since the beginning of 2005 when I finally discovered it existed. It was very much a source of inspiration for me when I was less confident and more scared of anything that involved strange techniques like stranded knitting or even circular needles. Nowadays I buy it in the hope that one day I will again be motivated enough to knit myself a sweater. 
So when I got an email from Interweave dangling a 15% discount in front of me, I decided to treat myself to some of the issues I don’t have, and started with 2004. It took 3 weeks to arrive after it was shipped, which made me a bit fidgety as I thought it might have gone the same way as my sock yarn, but it did get here, and I eagerly unwrapped it and put it into the PC.
Unfortunately, it’s not really the same, “ooh! new Interweave!”, experience when those magazines are on CD. When I bought the digital version of The Knitter, I wasn’t bothered about what else was in the magazine as I had my sights focussed on Alice Starmore goodies, but with Interweave I do like to read it cover-to-cover. Now the magazines are in pdf format, with a contents page at the side and the patterns are easy to print, but it’s not really the same as sitting on the sofa with a snoozing baby and something to read. But I have patterns aplenty now, with the Flower Basket Shawl being the first I printed off.
I think, for me, that digital magazines will only be an option for me if I’ve missed a must-have pattern and I will always prefer the feel and smell of a shiny new magazine, in much the same way that I eschew the idea of ebook readers. I suspect this is is a sign of me getting old. 
If prefering paper over e versions of magazines and books make *you* old, then I’m old too. I love receiving my magazines in the mail and I love the feel of books. No ebook reader for me, no no. That said, digital versions of magazines are handy when they’re out of print and definitely a good thing in that case.
I am old and I agree you can’t beat the feel and smell of a proper magazine or book. I don’t even like watching tv on the computer but somehow looking at other people’s knitting on line is absolutely fine.
i agree, definitely. I tried really hard to get into the idea of e-readers, as i am a bit of a geek and i love reading, but they somehow just don’t feel as relaxing as a proper paper thing. It’s quite hard to put your finger on why this is, especially now the screens have improved and have less glare… maybe one day they will get there…
Totally with you regarding digital versions of magazines not having the same happy relaxing factor as a magazine. You can’t flick through a pdf, it just doesn’t do it for me. Magazines are for browsing, I feel.
But I still love my eReader – I like to get lost in a book, and whether I am looking at the dead tree version or the eInk version turns out to be immaterial. I realised that when I caught myself trying to physically turn over the page of the eReader. Ahem.
(Also, crumpets and butter – mmmmm….)
I agree with mags being much more enjoyable than digital versions. I’ve subscribed to Verena online, which is good as I get the patterns and don’t have to hunt through all the WhSmiths around, but it’s just not the same as leafing through a magazine. I was thinking about getting the Interweave cds though because there’s a lot of magazines that I’ve missed with great patterns….