Miscellaneous yarny bits

I've been browsing knitblogs lately, and feeling vaguely jealous of the owners thereof. They all seem to knit faster than I do, have such pretty pictures of finished items, and inhabit (apparently) clean, uncluttered, sun-drenched worlds. I have to keep reminding myself that their worlds are probably as cluttered and messy as mine, and it's only careful photography that makes it look otherwise. A little framing and cropping, and my world would appear tidy and elegant too.

Also, they probably don't have 70-mile-round-trip commutes from hell, or if they do, they live in civilised places which have convenient public transit, so they can knit on the trains. Because really, the 45-90 minutes I spend in the car each way would be sooooo much more bearable if I could read or knit. But that's a bad idea when you're driving.

(Yeah, I know, audiobooks. Except I never really got into audiobooks. They just don't do it for me. *shrug*)

I have taken to bringing a little knitting project with me to work. Nothing big -- a sock, a baby hat -- and nothing on metal needles, so as not to upset the security folk. I knit a round or two on my lunch break. It's something.

Also knitting related, of course I love Knitty and I am trying to love MagKnits though I am finding that harder. It is not that MagKnits does not have some eminently knittable items. Sushi, for example, is at least as amusing as the knitted fruit and baskets that were in Interweave Knits a few years ago. Likewise I find Calla very appealing. And other patterns too. MagKnits seems to be better at accessories than garments overall, but that's fine. Place for everything and a' that.

But egad, is MagKnits hard to navigate. Knitty has back patterns and articles neatly organised by category (um ... what was that sock pattern ... *clicks Archive* *scrolls down to Socks* There!). The weblinks work. It's good. MagKnits, on the other hand? Yoinks. I couldn't find Calla from their main page with a map and compass. Nothing is clearly organised. The link to April '06 patterns from the archive page takes you to March '06 patterns (April '06 patterns are here). Some links don't work at all. It's ... not good.

The other thing I find hard to love about both magazines is the absence of a printer-friendly option. Am I supposed to sit in my computer chair with the website up while I knit? But if I try to print from Knitty, words get cut off (a couple of letters at the end of each row. Not good), plus of course I get my page all cluttered up with the ads. MagKnits is not quite so bad (at least I get all the words) but still inelegant. It takes six pages to print out Calla when it should probably only take four. Bah.

Edit: I take that back about MagKnits printing better. When I went over the printout of Calla, I found I had lost quite a bit of the directions. Bah, again.

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