The introduction I should have had here this morning:
I usually work towards posts over a few weeks and try to publish on Fridays. Last night when I looked at the drafts I had, the collections of links had only one link each in topic, and this list had been sitting there. It’s things I’ve heard people sigh about when doing customer support, or I’ve scratched my head over hearing knitting friends discuss. Most people who contact me have found left/right goofs, spelling errors, and things I need to take photos of! But I’m trying to post something every Friday, and this was the closest thing to being ready to go.
- Let me know if my wording is hard to follow, or something slipped past me and the tech editor and my pattern is off, or if something I invented isn’t making itself clear to your brain or fingers. My e-mail is Christine at christineguestdesigns dot com
- if you want an adaptation of a pattern, letting me know might help me know what to publish, but it takes me 3 months to put a pattern together, and that assumes all my subcontractors line up nicely.
- Swatch.
- Seriously – a big swatch, using the same technique as you will use in your item, flat if flat, circular if circular, my own gauge does weird things when I switch between them.
- Then block it, maybe hang some weight on it, then (and only then!) test your gauge.
- Gauge is important, not using the same needles I did. I list needle size as a starting GUESS for you, so you have a good chance to buy something that might work if this is your first pattern and you don’t have a large needle supply.
- Row gauge is also important, but harder to sync up with me.
- Change the color of yarn in a pattern. Don’t get stuck on whatever I used. It may have been picked to go with the rest of a magazine (not that I’ve managed to get into that many magazines). It may have been what the yarn company had in stock to give away in yarn support. It may have been the color my LYS had enough of for me to use. It may have been a color that looks pretty on my cousin that I give photography samples to.
- I want you to look good in this project. I want whoever you are knitting for to look good in the project too, but to get fit, you have to measure yourself, and make decisions with bravery and math. Then you may have to change your plan.