I am truly excited to bring you this free online magazine devoted to the art of crochet. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time, and when I got laid off from my dream job, I decided to take the plunge. It won’t pay the bills, but at least I’ll be happily plunking around the internet looking for inspiration and trying to fit in all the patterns submitted while continuing to come up with my own designs.
It is my hope that this magazine will encourage folks who have thought about designing to give it a try, much like Ravelry has done for so many new designers. I want to encourage designs for and by men and for plus-sizes. Being a plus size myself (and petite as well), it is hard to find clothing patterns that accommodate larger sizes. It can be quite discouraging and often keeps me from making clothing items, resulting in my continuing to stick with accessories or making things for other people.
While this magazine is geared towards crochet, it will not be anti-knitting, quite the opposite! If we find techniques that support knitting and crochet, then we’ll cover them. Our Healthy Crafting column will be useful for any craft. Adding crocheted borders and accents to knitted garments is a wonderful way to use these two crafts together. So, if we receive a pattern that does this, it will be considered for inclusion as long as the pattern doesn’t add the crochet section as a minor part of the design, i.e., a fully knitted garment with just a simple crochet border. One of the most beautiful patterns I’ve ever seen was a knitted top that came to the armpits, then the upper chest, shoulders, sleeves, and lower border were all in crochet. The smooth knitted section perfectly complemented the more ornate crocheted areas. Absolutely gorgeous!
Now, a little bit on this premier issue which has some designs for colder weather. Patterns come from both beginner and established designers, and we even have a column for beginners that I’m sure will help new crocheters pluck up the courage to try new techniques. Since this is our first issue and had a very short deadline, we only have a few patterns available, but I fully expect a larger issue for Spring 2009. Each month, we plan on having special features, such as reviews of yarn, patterns, designers, sites, notions, and books, tips and techniques, a Question & Answer column, and whatever else we can think up.
Each article and pattern has icons at the top of the page for converting to PDF, e-mailing, or printing. Once an issue is published, a PDF version will be generated and made available for download. Each pattern will also be added to Ravelry and links to the Ravelry project page added. In addition, once I get the format tweaked the way I like it, the entire issue in PDF format can be sent to all members so please create an account then check your e-mail for an activation message. If you don’t receive the activation message, check your junk/spam folder to see if it is there. Members may also have access to specials and contests … but that is still just a teeny niggling thought in the back of my head. Subscribing isn’t required, but if you’d like to receive the PDF version and future newsletters in your e-mail, then you will need to create an account.
We’d love to have you contribute in any way you can, from submitting your articles and patterns, to volunteering to edit submitted articles and patterns. To submit articles and patterns, check out the FAQs section for instructions. If you’d like to help out as an editor, post a message in the Crochet Uncut forum at Ravelry and I’ll see what we can find for you to do.
I hope you enjoy each and every pattern and article just as much as I have.
Darlisa Riggs, Editor/Publisher
RavID: fignations
P.S. I’ll be doing some tweaking to the first few issues as we refine the magazine, so if you see things change in the middle of an issue, don’t worry, it will all work out in the end!