This doesn't really concern me personally, but I know many of you will be interested:
Are you familiar with the Dutch sewing magazine Knipmode? You may have read about it on Melissa's blog, Fehrtrade. And she may not be the only not-Dutch seamstress who likes this magazine.
In that case, there might be some change ahead: Knipmode's publisher, Sanoma (sorry, this link goes to a Dutch-only page on their site), has just announced a massive reorganization. Their portfolio of about 50 magazine titles will be reduced to just 17 over the coming year. With those 17, they are focussing on specific parts of the market. The remaining titles will be sold or (if they haven't been sold by the end os 2014) they may be merged and continue in a different form.
Knipmode is in that group. At this moment, no-one is talking about ending the existence of any of these magazines. All 32 are profitable at the moment. But still, the future of Knipmode will be decided during the coming year. If the magazine is sold, there may changes and if no buyer is found, it may end up being merged with a not-sewing magazine and/or continue online only (and Knipmode hasn't been known for it's great website so far…)
If any of you out there are fans of the magazine, I'll try to keep you up-to-date!
P.S. In completely unrelated news: Both my courses at iFabrica have two participants now, which is the required minimum number. So, both are definitely going to happen. And you can still sign up. The Pattern Magic one starts next Sunday and has its second day a week later. The up-cycling and bag-making course is a one day thing and it will be held on 15 December. Oh, and of course, especially with these small groups, it's not a problem if you don't speak Dutch.
P.P.S. I know I haven't been alone in missing the Pattern School website since it went offline months ago. My searches never uncovered any corners of the internet where copies might still exist… Until I was reading Fashion Incubator a little while ago and clicked a link about 'grading for knits'. It brought me here, which is a place all of us, Pattern School fans, will recognize. I'm going to change the link in my sidebar right now.
Ah! I was about to say, I've been using WebArchive for pattern school since I discovered it went offline, but then realised the link you have is for that! I actually spent an afternoon copying and pasting the sections into Google Docs, just in case... I think it was a worthwhile use of time, given how good that site is.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info about Knipmode - I think the direction they've been going in for the last several months has been great, as well as the digital pattern store, so I really hope that they can stick around.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update! I subscribed to Knip for two years and then realised they were just repeating patterns and I couldn't justify the cost so I stopped. I reckon their most fashion forward and unique patterns were during 2008-2010 and ever since then they've sort of been treading water (stylistically). Will be good to see how they go though-it's not for me (anymore) but I wish them always because they've got a good product that they've clearly put some effort into.
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