Sometimes Magazines Do Not DO Justice to Knit Wear

Yesterday, a friend and I went to Imagiknit, a wonderful LYS in San Francisco. I still don't have much of a yarn budget due to a huge car repair bill, but there's no charge for window shopping.

My friend, D, is a person who loves yarn & fiber, but doesn't want to knit or crochet (as her mother kinda turned her off to the craft) -- I'm working on remedying that situation. We wandered the store and I explained some things she was curious about (what is "wool" versus alpaca, and what micron count meant)

At one point, I looked up and saw the samples that had been knit for the store, and saw this sweater vest (Ravelry Link) and PROMPTLY fell in love with it. (The store sample did NOT have the fringe on the shawl collar).

I tried it on...and it fit beautifully, and my friend, D, said, "Oh, that is SO You". The cables were beautiful. The yarn used was Lana Grossa -- a 4 ply cable ply bulky yarn (merino/cashmere) in a dark charcoal grey, and it was soo soft, so luscious, and the cable definition was simply Amazing with this yarn.

The sales girl tried to look up the pattern, but their inventory said they didn't have the magazine in stock (of course, right?), but another helpful sales clerk FOUND said magazine on a table (it was mislabeled in their inventory).

When we flipped to the pattern page, I was pretty shocked.

1. the photo of the cabled sweater was TINY. You could not get a good look at it.
2. there was FRINGE all over the shawl collar (the sample did NOT have the fringe)
3. in the already tiny photo, the fringe covered up all of the lovely cabling so you wouldn't have known about the cabling
4. it was in an awful sky blue colorway

From the Lana Grossa Website.

This is how approximately "small" the photo was in the magazine

Myself, D, and the sales clerk looked at the photo, looked at the sample, looked at the photo...and we all said "Wow". We all thought the photos sucked. This magazine was oversized and the product photo was 1/4th the size of the page....in a corner and easily overlooked. I would have EASILY passed over this pattern had I been flipping through the magazine on a whim.

If the store didn't have the knitted sample, I would have never known about this wonderful sweater.

Sufficed to say, I bought the magazine with the pattern. However, I did NOT buy the yarn -- that will have to wait until I have a yarn budget again....although I am tempted to just spin for it....