Monday 10 November 2014

A beginners perspective

 Inspired by my yarn bombing knitting colleagues that I met in York a couple of weeks ago I decided to really have a go at publishing my knitting patterns on line. 

All the knitting I do for my Etsy shop is made up from little snippets of patterns and information from elsewhere , I make some scribbles so I can make another if I need to. I had formally written up some patterns , had them for sale on Etsy but no one had purchased them. I didn't know if they worked or not.

I was told that Ravelry was the place for getting your patterns tested by both the experienced and inexperienced knitters. Great I thought , that's one way round my dilemma. So off I trotted and posted a few of the patterns I had already made on to the ravelry testing forum.

I then went to work on a new pattern, something simple I was told , something that anyone could knit up as a Christmas present using up an odd ball of yarn.

So I came up with my headband pattern , such a simple knit I thought and such a simple pattern. I put it to the testing forum on Ravelry and I also asked my Craft Britannia team mates on Etsy. 

Jill from Fabrilushus piped up saying she could only just knit , could she test it out from a beginners perspective. 

What a great idea ! so i sent her the pattern , answered a couple of her questions and off she went.

She now has finished the headband and this is what she says


"Anyway, i am finally finished! I know you have got it listed now anyway and that it is doing well but I thought you would still like my beginners perspective.

It is a great beginners pattern! Very easy knitting, grows very quickly and gives a lovely effect. I really like it. I did find the finishing off a little tricky but managed with no mishaps. 




 I found that I couldn't actually get my 3rd needle through the stitches whilst they were on 2 needles so I got around it by transferring each individual stitch on to the working needle and then knitting them together! The tieing off bit to pull it together was fine.




I think the pattern does make sense for a beginner and I love the photos.

I only have one comment where I think you could add something and it is purley for Numpty beginners like me...... you mention that if you wish to have a narrower band to just reduce the number of stitches. I think it may be worth saying that it must be an odd number of stitches otherwise the pattern will not work. I did not know that until you told me and suspect that other beginners won't.

Thank you so much for letting me test your pattern. Sorry it took an age! I am attaching photos for you. The ones of me are terrible as they are selfies with my phone but I did want you to see that the finished article is perfectly wearable. Even makes a good mini cowl and I have actually worn it like that with my coat this weekend. It works well if you don't want lots of bulk" 




 If you want to try out this same pattern , then it can be purchased here 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Quick View of Woolly Goodies available on my web site

Quick View of Woolly Goodies available on my web site
Click on photo above to see detail / to purchase