A rant about British crafty magazines

[UnePrune]

They are shit.

I just got Marie Claire Idées through the post.

In it there are:

three sets of instructions for making different chicken coops.

making a rug from old jeans, including constructing the loom.

various knitting patterns

decoupage

quiltmaking

papier maché tutorial

painting

embroidery

sewing

and lots else.

What do we get?

Knit a novelty badger

Stick some stuff onto card

Embroider a spectacle case

I don't want to do all of these things, or indeed any of them really, but I like the fact that they think I can.

That's it.

I didn't know there were any craft magazines - maybe they look so shit I tune them out!

Are French women really clever and practical then?

I dunno

I mean obviously there are pages and pages of "articles" about the latest useless grooming products and diets as well......

I just love the fact that in a magazine aimed at women, there is CARPENTRY.

LMAO over 'novelty badger'

What I really hate is when you buy a knitting magazine for example and there's a recipe at the back. If I want a food magazine, I'll buy one but I don't want to pay £4.50 for a knitting magazine to find half of it filled with stuff that's not knitting.

When I (rarely) get to go abroad I alway find a newsagent and pick up some craft magazines, the selection here is really hopeless. The French ones seem to have things you might actually want to wear/use/have in your home.

Craft and Make are American. though.
I look at Craft online and DH has Make online, we are a happy couple

When you see the really amazing things that are made quite simply and easily, it's hard to stomach the sheer awfulness of what's publicised in Britain.

I LOVE Selvedge though! It's Pinny Porn Plus.
(Also the place I work in has it for sale, so I get to leaf through it for free. I'm not sure I'd pay £10.)

Years and years ago (I mean like in the 60s or maybe even earlier) my Dad used to get something called Hobbies Weekly which was full of all kinds of projects. We had a stack of them in the dressing table at home and i often used to get them out as a kid and leaf through them wishing I could have a go at some of these fantastic things.

I wish something like that was still about.

You want Popular Mechanics!

DH once bought an issue which showed you how to build a barbeque into the back of your pick up truck.Fabulous.

i'm interested in the novelty badger too

Joining in the rant. My grandma rang at the weekend to tell me she'd bought a knitting magazine(!) and thought I'd be interested in the booklet that came with it. I got all excited but then it arrived yesterday. I was more than a little deflated to receive "Knits for Pets: papmer your puss or pooch to a handmade accessory".

Not quite a novelty badger, but a nautical jacket for a tiny dog, a scarf, a corsage for a cat's collar. And, perhaps most laughably, a selection of knitted cat toys. My cat would rather just play with the wool!

Even the single craft ones are useless. Last knitting mag I bought (because I wanted the free stuff on the front) had several really ugly garments on models 2-3 sizes too small for them. There was not a single pattern I would consider making.

Does anyone here have a subscription to any of the US magazines eg Interweave knits. I used to get knit:1 but it was discontinued after I only had 2 issues.

I think Yarn Forward and The Knitter occasionally have some good patterns in, but you have to plough through pages and pagers of dross before you get to them. I remember reading about a woman once who made her living from making knitted toast. Seriously. Surely you have to really really like toast to want to spend your life immortalising breakfast in wool?

I'd rather save the money and use the free websites like Ravelry and BurdeaStyle. The sad thing is that the people who come up withe the projects in these magazines genuinely think they're beautiful and innovative. I used to do hand modeling for craft mags and I was always havung to do stuff like crochet glasses cases and wallpaper bedroom furniture

OP you're so right, craft magazines are very rancid. Better ideas, tutorials, inspiration online.

I LOVE Marie Claire Idees...when I lived in Australia there were SO many more opportunities and equipment there...I dk wy it's so rubbish here. I stick to internet sites...blogs like angrychicken have great ideas and tutorials.

there's a new mag just out called Making which is OK-ish...I love MC Idees, Ive even knitted one of their patterns armed with translation sheet. I used to get Selvedge but have to agree with Butterfly that it was too Artisan for me. I LOVE Quiltmania - they are mad, French and mad.