The first issue of Chicago’s “irreverent quarterly yarn craft magazine … devoted to the irreverent Chicago yarn arts” was released in early April. I had read about it beforehand and got my very own copy when visiting Chicago.

Don’t you just love the cover? (Highlighted by a tablecloth on my garden table …).

It’s a first issue, a baby quarterly, and you can tell this baby is loved. Kim Richardson – the editor-in-chief, photographer, graphic as well as contributing designer, and ‘the baby’s mother’ – put together 56 pages, packed with information, interviews, reviews (books, yarns, gadgets), patterns, and more with regard to knitting, crochet, and spinning.

The magazine is her attempt to bring Chicago’s knitting and crochet community “together in one place, to share patterns and stories about knitting in the city, to talk about upcoming events, to learn new things, to meet new people, and to make … knitting circles larger.”

I learned the word “swatch” which I had not heard before, together with a fabulous new stitch in crochet (the window stitch), I read about the “German twisted cast-on” to realize that (even though I am German) I have never used it (but will now – Kim says it looks bad-ass 🙂 ), the knitting memory game made me laugh, and I could not agree more with the presentation of the featured store, Sifu Design Studio and Fine Yarns. And I love the chart with all symbols and abbreviations one could possibly think of. It is neatly arranged and very convenient.

What is left to say? I wish for Kim and her magazine that a lot of people in the Chicago area like the magazine as much as I do, so that hopefully the second issue’s volume will be twice as big!

Good luck to everyone involved and please keep me updated!!