I wish I kept more of my old knitting patterns, but at least I was smart enough not to get rid of this magnificent pattern booklet from a time when the French yarn company Pingouin was huge and influential. What a marvelous idea to ask five of the most acknowledged designers to design a collection where they could experiment freely according to their personal beliefs and intuition of fashion. As Melka Treanton says in her introduction that the idea of letting the creative and the innovative unite hand knitting and fashion became something between play and fireworks. Azzedine Alaïa, the innovative. Anne Marie Beretta, the strict. Jean Paul Gaultier, the inventor. Thierry Mugler, the daring. Chantal Thomass, the feminine. Knitted evening dresses, beachwear, gorgeous jackets in bold colors as divine today as then, even though the styling is at times very much from its time. The professional finish is outstanding!

You can see pictures of all the 29 garments here: album. I still remember my excitement when I found it in, what used to be my local yarn shop which stopped trading just as Pingouin unfortunately did. My version is translated into Swedish, even though most of the other patterns used to be sold in Danish which has more similar knitting terms to Norwegian. If you want to compare for yourself, take a look here: garnstudio. What I do like about the magazine is not only how mind blowing it felt to realise that you can knit amazing, fashionable garments that do not look homemade but also the professional lay out and fashion styling. Each designer has a portrait page and each design has been given plenty of space, unlike the limited space and page numbers each design is given by publishers today. I have been waiting for a new issue ever since…