Friday Freebie E-Zine
For this week's Friday Freebie I decided to share something a little different - an e-Zine or online knitting magazine called Knit Circus. There are lots of things I like about online e-zines - like the fact that I can read them without having them pile up in the corner of my office! So far Spindlicity, Twist Collective and Ennea Collective have given me some pretty good online reading but Knit Circus just give so much more of it! Spindlicity has changed from an e-zine format to simply blogging, which, while disappointing, is a growth progression as Janelle Laidman, it's main protagonist, has changed her focus to writing sock books - awesome sock books that is! I suppose I have to cut Ennea a little slack because they are still so new and just building themselves. They are still very small and have only a few patterns available. Hopefully time will remedy that! Twist Collective is really more about selling patterns - and I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because I love their patterns, but it's more their focus than the articles, which are sort of just a bonus.
Knit Circus reads and feels like a "real" magazine and the current issue is 113 pages! That's a LOT of free reading! The articles range from an interview with podcaster Never Not Knitting to DIY Aran sweater design by Wendy Knits to how to properly measure for armholes! There are even video how-to's! All the ads are clickable links - there was even one for PhatFiber! - and a product review for WineMakersSister's stitch markers (a fellow Etsy seller & PhatFiber gal). I really loved that every article was free to read. Everything is beautifully laid out and engaging. So what's the fly in all this sweet knitting ointment? Not much. Just that the patterns (both knitting and crochet) are not free. I am definitely NOT complaining by saying this, just stating a fact. And quite frankly, they shouldn't be free anyways - it's the only way to keep designers producing new patterns. But here's the great part - instead of buying one pattern at a time, you can purchase a 5 issue subscription for $23.50 US and get ALL the patterns from every issue! Talk about a bargain! And if you don't want a subscription you can purchase individual issues, which I think is really cool because you can browse all their back issues using the tab along the top of any page (the subscriptions tab is up there too). I think it's far and away some of the best ideas I've seen in e-zines and sure beats the Interweave $14.95 an issue e-zines! So click on the Knit Circus link and enjoy some awesome free reading!! Cheers all!
Knit Circus reads and feels like a "real" magazine and the current issue is 113 pages! That's a LOT of free reading! The articles range from an interview with podcaster Never Not Knitting to DIY Aran sweater design by Wendy Knits to how to properly measure for armholes! There are even video how-to's! All the ads are clickable links - there was even one for PhatFiber! - and a product review for WineMakersSister's stitch markers (a fellow Etsy seller & PhatFiber gal). I really loved that every article was free to read. Everything is beautifully laid out and engaging. So what's the fly in all this sweet knitting ointment? Not much. Just that the patterns (both knitting and crochet) are not free. I am definitely NOT complaining by saying this, just stating a fact. And quite frankly, they shouldn't be free anyways - it's the only way to keep designers producing new patterns. But here's the great part - instead of buying one pattern at a time, you can purchase a 5 issue subscription for $23.50 US and get ALL the patterns from every issue! Talk about a bargain! And if you don't want a subscription you can purchase individual issues, which I think is really cool because you can browse all their back issues using the tab along the top of any page (the subscriptions tab is up there too). I think it's far and away some of the best ideas I've seen in e-zines and sure beats the Interweave $14.95 an issue e-zines! So click on the Knit Circus link and enjoy some awesome free reading!! Cheers all!
Posted by Gloria Patre at 2/3/2011 9:44 PM 
Categories: Friday Freebies, Books
Tags: free patterns knit circus
Categories: Friday Freebies, Books
Tags: free patterns knit circus
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