Thursday 24 February 2011

Hard decisions

My recent post about pattern thrift has been prompting me to go through my Ravelry library - taking a cold hard look at the patterns I have bought or downloaded and what prompted me to do so. I discovered another nifty Ravelry feature - to think I have spent so much time on the site but yet can still find 'new' things. In the library feature you can look at downloads you have actually used - so you can look at a particular book you own for example and see what patterns you have made from it. My 'top purchases' are:
Last Minute Knitted Gifts - 5 patterns
Favorite Socks - 5 patterns
Whimsical Little Knits - 4 patterns (admittedly 1 pattern used 3 times for the wonderful Hap blanket)

Whilst I can't remember the exact price I paid for these books I am guessing it was in the order of £10-15 each, which approximates to £2-3 per pattern used.

This compares against my stack of Yarn Forward magazines which I have an annual subscription for (estimated annual cost of £45) and I have getting for 3 years worth. Of these I have knitted a grand total of....ta da.... 1 pattern ... and that one ended up being frogged.

Whilst I love getting a magazine through the post every month and I do love the articles - do I love them enough to justify the exepnditure. On balance - probably not. It makes far more sense to buy an independently published pattern book knowing that I will knit at least a couple of patterns from it.

The wonderful new Ysolda book is calling to me - and £45 will give me enough to buy the book and enough yarn to make one of the projects if I shop wisely.

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