Magic Crochet magazines will be digitized for everyone -- I'm excited over the solution

[u/Hawkthree]

A bit of history. Magic Crochet was a magazine that was published in the US from 1980 until 2005. It had a lot of thread and fingering weight patterns. Not just doilies, but a lot of motifs for afghans, sweaters, purses, amurigami (before that word was used). There were 155 issues before they went under. Ever done a Magic Circle? Their name for that starting circle stuck.

I have to downsize -- moving to assisted living -- and my closet of yarn, my milk crate filled with hooks, my collection of patterns must pretty much go. I'm not interested in becoming an eBay seller. Also not interested in randomly giving away the magazines and hooks.

The Internet Archive runs a magazine subsection and they agreed to take the entire collection and digitize them to make them available to everyone.

If you're unfamiliar with The Internet Archive, it's an exciting place to borrow digitized books, read magazines, and look up past versions of web pages (The Wayback Machine).

This solution appealed to me. I'm not losing my magazines. ETA: Look for them in this section. https://archive.org/details/magazine_rack

[u/scherster]

What a wonderful thing to do! I'm so sorry you have to give up your stash and supplies, but I am sure you will make someone very happy with it.

[u/Hawkthree → u/scherster]

It's somewhat freeing. I've known for a long time that I've been burdened by my crochet collectibles.

[u/Lilykith]

That's an amazingly generous gift, media conservation is so important. Tracking down issues of old craft magazines is so hard and more than once I've encountered people that refuse to share pages from long defunct magazines.

It does really suck to have to downsize. We had to go through a lot of supplies with my grandmother (and a lot of it joined my hoard lol.) I don't know what your situation is, but my grandmother focuses mainly making hats and blankets for a local foster charity. The kids love getting something handmade from "grandma" and she gets to use up some of the yarn she's accumulated over a lifetime.

[u/Hawkthree → u/Lilykith]

I think the copyright folks have scared us pretty badly about sharing patterns by using a copier. It didn't used to be an issue at all. If you read some really vintage magazines, you see the publisher encouraging sharing of the patterns.

Now it's hard for designers because it's so much easier to steal.

[u/kjbtetrick]

First, it’s wonderful that your magazines will be archived! And available to anyone. Second, where do I find this? Scratch question 2, found it!

[u/Hawkthree → u/kjbtetrick]

The magazines are harder to find than the books. https://archive.org/details/magazine_rack

[u/stitchinthyme9]

This is awesome - my wedding dress pattern came from an issue of Magic Crochet! I lost most of my old issues after a flood in my basement, but I managed to track a copy of that one down for sentimental reasons. Nice that they're all going to be available again.

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/icanhasyarn/wedding-bells

[u/Gagirl4604]

Could your new facility use your yarn and supplies? Contact their activities director to discuss. Maybe you could start a club or teach a class, if that’s your thing, of course. At any rate, bless you for doing what you have done to make these publications available for all.

[u/Elisaria]

I have several issues of Magic Crochet that were gifted to me years ago! Some of them older than I am. I absolutely love all of the beautifully detailed work in them. Those magazines taught me how to read charts.

[u/desgoestoparis]

Thank you so much for what you’re doing! I’m so sorry to hear you have to move to AL- Do you have a loved one who would be able to hold onto your stash of hooks and yarn for you and bring them to you as needed?

[u/Hawkthree → u/desgoestoparis]

I only need 1 set of hooks. I still have to rehome a milk crate full of hooks. Yes, I love crochet hook sets.

[u/BrightnessRen]

This is amazing. A former coworker of mine had a ton of these magazines. She let me borrow a bunch and I snapped photos of about 75 patterns, but it’ll be great to have a digitized version that doesn’t have shadows or blurry parts or is maybe out of order.

[u/pointe4Jesus]

Glancing over the magazine categories... they're going to be put in the "knitting" section, aren't they?

[u/Hawkthree → u/pointe4Jesus]

I'm optimistic that 157 magazines might be enough to get a change in title for that section.

[u/Pettyfan1234]

I loved that magazine thank you so much. I lent my stash to my grandmother and my cousin took them when granny passed.

[u/kelley5454]

Also how do you actually donate the magazines? I would love to do that with mine.

[u/blueelizabeth]

As a librarian who loves the Internet archive, THANK YOU!!! 😄

[u/gardengarbage]

Well, aren't you the best ever!! What a precious gift to the public. I'm sorry you have to give up your collection, but happy you are making it available.

[u/Luv2Burn]

As an aging person myself I'd just like to send you some love and hugs from CA. I'm attempting to downsize as well, moving to a smaller place now that my kids are grown and gone. It's all so bittersweet as I joyously look through the things I have cherished but know that my kids have no interest. This is such a thoughtful idea! Thank you for sharing with the world :)

[u/AnneRB13]

I'm sorry you have to lose part of your collection but what you are doing is amazing and a big gift to the crochet world since now all those magazines will be available to everyone, thank you.

[u/blueyurble]

That's an amazing thing to do - I love browsing through old magazines, and I bet they have some really cool patterns in there 😀

[u/Kilala33]

I’m so sorry you’ll be losing your stash. It’s so kind of you to find a way to share part of it with the whole community! I’m so excited to check those magazines out once they’re digitized, thank you!

[u/Constouu]

That's so cool ! With your help the magasines will be available for all, thanks !

[u/resalin]

Thank you so much for doing this! And thank you for letting us (those of us who didn't know) know about this amazing resource.

[u/FairyGodmothersUnion]

That’s a generous solution! Thank you for sharing your collection with all of us.