Wednesday, December 12, 2007

German Crochet Magazines: Hakelmode

The new Diana magazine is on the newsstands in Europe for 2008; the two Lea magazines pictured are from 2004 and 2005. My friends are visiting from Switzerland right now and they were kind enough to bring me these three issues, after much sifting through knitting magazines in yarn shops. One of them was found at the last minute in the Zurich airport!
The yarns used are brands like Austermann, Junghans, Lana Grossa, Lang, Online, Schachenmayr, and Schoeller + Stahl. The Diana issue has 15 women's fashions, about 9 of them crocheted. The average hook size is 5-6mm and the garments look chunky and more casual, bringing to mind American crochet patterns. The poncho in the second photo, for example, is described as youthful and trendy; it calls for a 12mm hook.
The 2004 Lea issue (top photo, far left) has 34 designs, all of them crochet, most also in medium-weight yarns. There's a pullover in tunisian (Tunesischer Hakelei) and two wraps in "schlingenmuster"--it looks like drop stitch rather than loop stitch, so maybe it uses a broomstick? (not pictured)

One of the magazines is mostly stitch patterns with fashion sketches offering ideas for how to use the stitch pattern in one's own design.
I'm happy to add these Lea and Diana magazines to my collection of Sandra and Sabrina issues. If there are any Rebecca issues with more crochet than knit in them, please let me know!

2 comments:

  1. So neat! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How nice to have friends who would bring you those magazines! I'd love to get my hands on those too.

    ReplyDelete

Each comment is like a pretty bead in a necklace. Please add one!