Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Knitting: One Tempest down, one to go

The daughter's Tempest sweater is finished, soaked, and drying.  I've started the armhole shaping on my Tempest's back piece, and rotated my projects so that my Tempest is now in the living room and my Snowflake sock project is in the bedroom.  I may have to rethink that however, as the pattern for Knit Pick's sock kit is complicated, charted, and just plain wrong.

I mentioned I got the KP Summer Garden sock kit right?  Maybe not here... well, I got it.  Twelve sock patterns, enough yarn for four pairs of socks.  Since I over-bought the blue yarn for MP's Tempest, I had an extra two-sock skein of the blue, so I started the Snowflake socks as a portable project.  The toes went fine, then I got to the chart.  The LEGEND on the chart has you cabling two stitches over one stitch.  Fine, I can do that.  However, the symbols on the chart don't match the legend... not quite.  Through guesstimation I figured out they were the same symbols, just one stitch shorter than the legend.  So everywhere they say to cable two to the front, I have to cable ONE to the front.  And vice-versa.

I always have this problem with Knit Picks patterns.  They make mistakes, or assume you know what they're saying even when their writing isn't terribly clear.  This is not the first pattern of theirs I've almost given up on in disgust.  It's a company full of knitters, but I swear there's not one technical writer in the bunch.

Because that's what writing knitting patterns takes... technical writing.  This is why my own pattern-designs never leave my hard drive.  It is VERY difficult to write technically accurate items that are also fun, clear, and concise.  My big problem is the concise part.  Oh, I'd get you there accurately, but it'd take ten paragraphs when it should take two.

I've seriously considered finding out of the local community college has a technical writing course.

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