Eye Candy

I think of magazines as eye candy. After all - they're colorful, frequently fluffy, lots of color calories with not too much substance, and, of course, nearly always for sale at the check-out counter. I'll admit - I buy a lot more magazines than candy - in fact you might say I buy magazines in lieu of candy. I'll even walk the long way around a grocery store or our local Walmart just to be sure I go past the 'other' magazine rack, to see what's new. It's the first place I look when I go into a big box book store. Yup. I may not eat desert first, but I sure do check out the glossies.

My expectations from magazines are not much more than my expectations from candy. I'm not counting on a lot of nutrition from them, but if there are one or two good articles - or in the case of knitting magazines, good patterns inside - I'll buy. This is the image that tipped the scales for me yesterday as I flipped through the Vogue Knitting Holiday 2011 issue. YUM. This is an absolute dream of a hat. The construction is very different from ordinary hat construction, too. And no surprise about the designer - it's Deborah Newton! Ha! Just looking at it in my own blog makes my fingers twitch. There will be a helmet hat in my future.

Since this was the third thing I really liked, even if two of them were 'just' accessories, I stopped perusing it and tossed it in my cart. What also floated my boat were these mitts:

and this sweater: 

That cabled rib makes my mouth water faster than chocolate would. Yum. In fact - it might just show up on my oatmeal tweed Aran - that's just waiting up ahead.

I liked a couple of other patterns as well - even the far more outre hat, again by D Newton, and on the same page. It's too funky for me to wear but it's cool to look at. And the plane jane sweater in burgundy red with intarsia flowers on it. I wouldn't have bought the magazine for those patterns and I would have been the poorer too, because once I got it home there was something I was really delighted to find. Check this out!


Stitch Heaven Salutes Barbara G. Walker DVD from TriCoast Worldwide on Vimeo.


Yeah! I'd never even heard of Stichheaven but I am enough of a Knit Star Groupie to want a copy of this. Hmm. Just the right price, too, for somebody to give me for Christmas.

Yep. This was some eye candy worth the calories, I'd say.