Pom Pom Magazine Spring 2020 Review

I'd heard of Pom Pom magazine a few times before and when I saw some of the patterns included in the Spring 2020 issue I decided to purchase it. I liked the patterns I'd seen and knew I would probably knit at least a couple of them, which at £12.50 made it pretty good value for money.

I ordered directly from Pom Pom's website and it arrived nicely wrapped in brightly coloured paper. I was impressed with the quality of the magazine itself, it has a matte cover with a velvet-effect finish, with matte internal pages which have a nice thickness to them. It feels like a very premium magazine, which is a pleasant experience to flick through and looks nice stored on a bookcase.

Regardless of how nice a magazine looks, the important part is the content. The theme of the Spring 2020 issue was 'Air'; it contains nine knitting patterns, one crochet pattern, an interview with Jacqueline Cieslak, a tutorial for making a floating floral arrangement and a meringue recipe. I purchased the magazine not really knowing a lot about it, I'd just seen it contained a couple of patterns I liked. The knitting patterns do make up most of the content, which as someone who mainly knits is great for me, but in all honesty was a bit surprised that such a large percentage of the content was the knitting patterns. Above the name on the cover the topics listed are knitting, crochet, crafts, fashion, art and food, which are all displayed together as if they're of equal importance, so I was expecting the content to be more evenly divided between all of these. The magazine is essentially a collection of knitting patterns with a few extra interesting articles, which I think could be better represented in the cover design. The website does include details of what the issue contains, but I had assumed this was highlighting a few interesting bits of non-knitting content rather than that being everything the issue contained. If you're a crocheter this magazine probably isn't a great option, as it seems to be more oriented towards knitters who occasionally crochet since only a single crochet pattern is included.

I obviously mainly purchased Pom Pom for the patterns, I hadn't seen all of the included patterns before purchasing but had seen Susurrus by Joji Locatelli and Solasta by Kindred Red (photos from Ravelry above), which I really liked. I've looked through all of the patterns and sorted them into categories: patterns I definitely want to knit, patterns I might knit and patterns I probably won't knit. I actually do like all of the patterns in this issue, but I've categorised them based on how well they fit my style and how they fit with the rest of my wardrobe, which has ruled some out and moved others further down my list.

My favourite pattern in this issue has to be Aloft by Brontë Knits (top left in the above photos taken from Ravelry). It's a loose fitting pullover worked in Fisherman's Rib; I think it fits my style the best and I definitely would like to knit it in future. My only issue is that one of the yarns used is 'heavy lace weight', which isn't a very common weight so I'm having trouble finding alternatives to the yarn used in the sample. I'm thinking of just trying to knit it using regular lace weight yarn, or I may just end up copying the sample. The second pattern I definitely would like to knit is Aperture by Mara Licole (top right), which is a triangular shawl with eyelet and lace details. This shawl only requires two skeins of sock yarn, so is one of the most affordable patterns in the issue and I can see it working well with a lot of my outfits. Surprisingly the two patterns which caused me to purchase this magazine in the first place (Susurrus and Solasta mentioned in the above paragraph) are actually in my list of patterns I might knit, rather than patterns I'm definitely wanting to knit, which is where I'm also categorising Niebla by Camila Larsen (bottom left). I really like all three of these, but they're all in this category for the same reason, which is that they all look to be a bit sheer which makes me not sure of what I'd wear them with. I may still knit these at some point, but they just don't slot as nicely into my existing wardrobe as the higher ranked patterns. The final pattern I'm mentioning, which is another one I might make is Vayu by Lana Jois (bottom right), which is a crochet shawl in a geometric style. The only reason this isn't something I'm certain I'll make is that I'm more of a knitter and don't work on crochet projects as often. I think this shawl does suit my style very well, so I'm going to bear it in mind for the next time I feel like picking up a crochet hook.

Overall, I think this issue of Pom Pom was very good value for money for me. It contains several patterns I could see myself knitting and is a nicely put together magazine. I think in future I will just purchase issues which contain at least one pattern I definitely would like to knit. I don't think I'd sign up for a subscription, as the majority of the content is the patterns, so if I received an issue where I didn't particularly like any of the patterns it would be a bit of a waste of money. If you've seen some patterns you like in an issue of Pom Pom and have been debating making a purchase I would definitely recommend it.