Pom Pom Quarterly is one of the newer print (and digital) knitting magazines, based out of London, UK. Their aesthetic is all about modern, cool new knitting patterns. The awesome team at Pom Pom Quarterly sent me a copy of their new Summer issue for review, so let’s get into it! Here are the details:
This issue has 8 patterns, 7 knitting and one crochet; and includes articles on how to plan for summer knitting while on vacation, the golden ratio and why it’s important for knitting. There is also a recipe for a delightfully summery sangria, and an interview and recipe/tutorial from Anna & Juan (a Swiss Dyeing Collective) on how to dye yarn naturally with onion skins- full of great photos! The digital version is available for £8 (British Pounds), which is approximately $14 US. One o f my favourite things about the issue is that the photo story feels like an exotic vacation. No boring department store catalogue photos here!
Most of the tops in this issue are cropped, ending around most people’s natural waist. This is definitely a modern, on-trend silhouette; but if you are not feeling the vibe, I’d suggest getting an extra skein or two and knitting a little bit more through the body to add the length you are looking for. Or maybe you like this silhouette, but are unsure of how to wear it? Cropped sweaters look amazing over untucked button up shirts (short sleeve take on it here), and fantastic worn over dresses (like this great Ravelry FO, here).
So, want to see my favourites from this issue? Then let’s go!
A lace tee with a slight cowl neck, knit from the bottom up in one piece until underarms are split, then worked flat for front and back. Lace is an 8 row/round repeat with resting rows on ever even round, lace is written and charted. Hardly any seaming, shoulders are closed with a 3 needle bind off.
You should totally knit this top if: you love lace, knitting in the round, and easy layering knits that look great over a tank top. I also think that given that most sizes require only 2 skeins of fingering weight, this would make great vacation knitting.
You should definitely not knit this top if: you only like top down knits, you aren’t that into lace or haven’t knit lace before, you never wear sleeveless shirts.
A light summer cowl that is more like a beautiful piece of knitted jewelry. perfect for making an instant outfit out of whatever you are wearing. Takes a bit less than 500 yards of fingering weight yarn, and great for yarns with drape, like the Shibui linen this one is knitted from. It’s knitted entirely in the round, lace is fully chartered and written out (a 63 round repeat with resting rows every even row- it’s such a long repeat because the stitch count changes as you work the lace and requires you to move the marker that denotes beginning of round or repeat).
You should totally knit this cowl if: you love knitting cowls, lace that will up your skills, and pretty, feminine accessories. Again, this would be great vacation knitting if you know you’ll be travelling for a while- this would be a great project for sitting in the car for a long drive to the cottage.
You should totally not knit this cowl if: You are new to lace, and shifting stitch counts that require you to move your markers between rounds drives you crazy.
This top-down knitted tee is stockinette on the front, and lace on the back. The construction features the contiguous method, which involves short rows. It is mostly knit in the round, except for a brief portion where the front and back are separated after the sleeve cap has been completed, and then rejoined to work the rest of the tee in the round after the underarms. The lace is fully charted, but if you prefer written instructions for the lace, the issue comes with a download code that yu can enter on the website and get a pdf of the written lace instructions.
You should totally knit this tee if: you love the contiguous method or are excited to try it, you love knitting top down and in the round.
You should totally not knit this tee if: you think short rows are the worst thing ever, or would never wear a lace back tee.
A cropped, richly textured sweater that is perfect for layering. If you prefer longer sweaters, you could add two more skeins to your yarn total and add an extra 4 inches to the body (approximately, we all have different torso lengths) to get a longer version.
You should totally knit this tee if: you adore texture, have two row-counters that you would love to use more often (or have been looking for an excuse to get some new row counters!), and don’t like aggressive blocking- this tee requires hardly any blocking at all!
You should totally not knit this tee if: the idea of knitting a front and back piece separately is really unappealing, or you have difficulty keeping track of two sets of simultaneous shaping (you know, the ‘at the same time…’ instructions).
