What Happened to Magic Crochet Magazine?
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Crocheters who want to get inspiration, ideas and patterns for their work frequently turn to crochet magazines as a terrific resource for such information. If you go online to search for good crochet magazines you will quickly find that there are a lot of people asking about a magazine called Magic Crochet Magazine. This is one of the most popular crochet magazines ever and yet it’s not around today. What happened to Magic Crochet Magazine?
What is Magic Crochet Magazine?
Magic Crochet Magazine is a UK-based magazine about crochet. It has articles, patterns and loads of different crochet information just like you would expect from any good crochet magazine. It was especially good for crocheters who were focused on thread crochet (as opposed to yarn). It frequently focused on lacy, thread-based crochet designs like doilies and tablecloths.
What many people loved about this crochet magazine was that there was a translation from the European instructions to the North American instructions. (Crochet instructions and yarn weights are slightly different in each of these places so it is a lot easier to follow patterns if a translation is offered. Many crochet magazines don’t offer such a translation, which is a core reason that Magic Crochet Magazine became popular even outside of the UK.
Interested in crochet magazines around the world? Learn more here!
Magic Crochet Up and Disappeared
In 2005, Magic Crochet Magazine suddenly just disappeared from the market. People who regularly purchased this crochet magazine off of the shelves found that it just wasn’t there anymore and they weren’t given an explanation. They looked up the advertisers who were known for selling subscriptions to Magic Crochet Magazine and they found that the magazine had been quietly removed from the listing. No one really knew what had happened.
At the time there were many people who had subscriptions to Magic Crochet Magazine. After April 2005 there subscriptions just stopped showing up. In order to find out what was going on many of these people called the magazine distributor. They were told that Magic Crochet Magazine was being reformatted and combined with some other magazines (not crochet-based). It took about six months before a new issue was released and when it was released it was a thing magazine with few patterns and much more emphasis on sewing than on crochet. That’s not what people want from their crochet magazines so a lot of folks were really disappointed! Ultimately Magic Crochet Magazine just disappeared entirely.
Magic Crochet Magazine Today
Even though it’s been half a dozen years since Magic Crochet Magazine exited the market there are still a lot of people who are interested in this crochet magazine. All around the web you can still find people discussing it. You can also find people selling back issues of Magic Crochet Magazine. People who have entire collections of all of the volumes of the old magazine are considered very lucky crocheters indeed!
Some of the reasons that people today are continuing to buy these old copies of Magic Crochet Magazine include:
o This is truly a high quality crochet magazine. The patterns, the information, and the translations all combine to make this a crochet magazine that stands out from the pack even though new editions haven’t been produced since 2005.
o The crochet designs in this magazine are timeless. Because Magic Crochet Magazine focused primarily on doilies, tablecloths and other classic home décor items it doesn’t matter that the patterns are old. In contrast, a magazine that focused primarily on fashions would now be out of date since the trends change so much in that area.
o Granny chic is super trendy! (What is granny chic? ) In addition to all of the people who were already interested in crocheting doilies and tablecloths there is an entire new generation of folks that have taken up this trend. Granny chic is a popular new style that celebrates doilies and other items that haven’t been around the home for decades. These people are highly interested in the vintage designs for those home items that were featured regularly in Magic Crochet Magazine.
Other Crochet Magazines
Crochet magazines are definitely a niche industry. Magazines themselves are starting to fade from the market since it’s cheaper, more eco-friendly and easier to get digital magazines instead of paper magazines. Crochet is a small portion of the already niche industry of fiber arts. As a result, there aren’t a lot of crochet magazines on the market today and there’s definitely a gap ever since Magic Crochet Magazine disappeared. However, there are a few great crochet magazines that you can get and although they won’t replace Magic Crochet Magazine for former subscribers they do offer a nice alternative.
In the U.S. magazine market the leading crochet magazines are Crochet!, Crochet Today!, Crochet World, Quick & Easy Crochet and Interweave Crochet Magazine. That last one is published quarterly and the others are all published every other month. Magic Crochet Magazine used to be a monthly magazine; the fact that magazines today aren’t published as frequently reflects the need to limit production in the market to keep it affordable to print these magazines and to make sure that they don’t have to disappear off of the market as well!
In terms of UK magazines, the best choice if probably Inside Crochet. This is one that North Americans do purchase although it’s more popular in the UK and it probably isn’t as popular here as Magic Crochet Magazine once was. The Art of Crochet Magazine is another UK magazine that helps to fill in some of the gap left by the disappearance of Magic Crochet Magazine.
Were you a Magic Crochet Magazine lover? Share your stories about this crochet magazine in the comments below!
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I am lucky enough to have some of the old copies of Magic Crochet. What made the designs so good was that they used designers from all over the world.
Free online patterns aren't helping the sales of crochet magazines either. I share free patterns myself, so sadly I'm not helping either.
It's a shame so many have gone out of business.
I have many of these wonderful magazines! I was one of the folks who had a subscription that stopped showing up. I loved the diagrams, especially. So easy to follow once you knew the symbol for each stitch. I miss the wonderful designs.
where can i get an issue of magic crochet that had a snowflake picture of tablecloth to crochet on cover anything you can help would sure be appreciated my email is angel922@npacc.net
The newest crochet pattern on A+BabyCrohet.com is a filet doily.
Take care and GOD bless you, and have a marvelous GOD blessed day.
Songbird25@lusfiber.net
What I enjoyed about the magazine was the fact that the patterns were illustrated for us visual people. Also there wasn't a lot of other "stuff"in the magazine.
Magic Crochet was not published monthly, but every other month. The opposite month was Decorative Crochet. It was not published in the UK either, but by a French company Les Editions, De Saxe S.A. http://www.edisaxe.com. They publish new and some of the same patterns in the following three magazines (in French): 1000 Mailles, Mailles, Crochet Creations as they published in Magic Crochet and Decorative Crochet. The format is the same and the easy-to-read diagrams are the same, using the same symbols as Magic Crochet and Decorative Crochet. Don't be put off that it is in French! The patterns remain easy to follow.
Lady in Mass very sad to not find Magic Crochet I write on toPatterson N.Y.Mail came back wrong address. Now I need to know if you are in P.O. Box 1971 Danbury ,Ct. 06813-9848.Because I love Magic Crochet I need new magazine to my collection please tell me that you steal making the magazine steal.My Add, 18 Hartley St, Springfield, Mass. 01104 Thank You
I miss the Magic Crochet Magazine bring them both back Decorative contact at annaharned@ymail.com
I also subscribed to Magic Crochet over the years. I still have all the copies I was issued and I still use them today. I am just getting back into crocheting doilies, so these patterns give me unending choices. The newest crochet magazine I receive is called "Crochet World". This magazine gives a more diversified group of patterns. This is fun because it allows you to choose from yarn to 4-ply cotton thread to doilie thread patterns. If Magic Crochet came back on the market, I would subscribe in a minute.
I also had subscriptions to both magazines until they started putting the junk in them. I didn't want other crochet stuff, just doily stuff or thread stuff. I didn't mind one or two things. The other thing I didn't like towards the end is that they got half the size as they use to be for the same amount of money. Then it just got harder to find because I would look at them before buying them. At least now I know why I can't find them. I have almost two sets of both of them but Magic Crochet from #37 on and all of Decorative Crochet until the last 2-3 years when I didn't like them. You wonder why I have two sets. My mother passed away 5 years ago and my father and siblings would throw her set out and I thought about selling them on the internet. Now I don't know if it's worth it unless its in 10's or the whole bunch.
I also miss the magazine . I started collecting them in 1985. If the magazine would come back I would get in in a minute.
I made many things from both magazines and now value each issue that I have. I miss their format more than anything.
I have several magazines and would continue to get them if I could. It was much easier for me to learn the symbols they used then to read the directions for the patterns. I have done at least 30 of their patterns and my whole family has at least one of my doilies. I wish they would bring it back, even if it is copies of older books and patterns. There are so many I don't have I would buy subscription again. Diana
I have volumes of the magazine, I go back to them for inspiration and follow the great patterns. Wish my collection was complete.
I miss the magazine very much. It was the first thing I looked for when it was time for a new one. I have a few of them but wish I had many more. I would love it if it came back, even as a quarterly.
I love the Magic crochet magazine. I'm a self taught crocheter and I love the magazine its illustration and the easy follow guide in doing the crocheting.My projects came out perfect. I was a subscriber and I used to get so anxious in getting my next issue. I wanted to see the new patterns. I was never a thread crocheter until I had my first magazine couple of years back, and then began loving it so, I made doilies, tablecloths well just about everything. I was so sadden no I no long received the magazine, but thank God I still have my old ones and I still can do my crochet from them. Wish magic crochet magazine come back. I miss them.
I have many "Magic Crochet" mags. If someone would please send me a copy of the #14 'Net Stitch Table Cloth' from the Number 13 Magazine I would be totally in your dept. I have it but have used the book so much that the middle pages that this is a part of, is folded over and over, some of the graph is hard to read.
kthsprau@gmail.com
i HAVE A LOT OF THESE BOOKS i USE TO GET THEM IN THE MAIL
AND EVEN I AM OLDER NOW I STILL USE THEM A LOT.EVERYONE LOVES MY DOLLIES.
Patty Inglish, MS Level 7 Commenter 13 months ago
I DID wonder what happened to this publication! I'm going to have a better look at our Half Price Books Stores. Thanks very much for the Hub. Rated up and several others.