Newbie Knit Designers Thoughts to Think on Pattern Layout and Design
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
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To see the slightly chaotic live that inspired this video click this link:
ruclips.net/user/li...
And I did make a follow-up video on Style Sheets that you can see here: • Knitting Design What i...
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Thanks Barbara. Now I know why I love knitting your patterns and why I find other patterns much harder to follow. I find your patterns so easy to read - the 2/3 column. I use the side bar to write my notes in and I always use the bubbles. And I love it being so easy to find the wool, needles and gauge information. So once again thank you for taking the time to think about these things.
I'm so glad that what worked for me works for you! LOL. Thank you!
Would enjoy more on this topic. I had never emailed a designer till I did you, as I Loved the bubbles and hint layout so much I had to say thanks.
It makes my day when someone takes the time to send a kind email. I am glad you continue to hang out here with me.
Hi Barbara! This post was brilliant and offers priceless advice to designers just starting to publish their patterns. Although I couldn't design my way our of a wet paper bag, I do love to knit some interesting and challenging projects. Your post explains why I gravitate to my favorite designers and avoid others even though their projects look amazing.
As a senior who has made 72 trips around the sun, I find many patterns, even from some of my preferred designers, printed in a font size that challenges my vision. I often need to create a "vision friendly" version of the pattern by cutting the text from the PDF and pasting into a Word document and then reformatting it using a larger font size. This also allows me to avoid depleting my printer ink supply by eliminating the pictures from my cheat copy. This process, although tedious, forces me to get up close and personal with the pattern before I actually start knitting. And that has saved a lot of frustration and frogging. I would encourage designers to consider us golden oldie knitters when they make document formatting choices in their published patterns.
I always appreciate your thoughtful and in-depth analyses of topics. Please keep them coming!
P.S. - I love your giggle!
Getting to know the pattern is really a great way to ensure success. I always compare going in blindly to cooking something from a new recipe. You are motoring along just fine and then you hit the part where it says to marinate overnight and realize you have to order pizza LOL!
This video is really enjoyable to listen to. Thank you for sharing your ideas and skills for us.
Would love a video based on a style sheet.
I love your pattern sheets
Thank you so much!
Really enjoyed this video and yes I would enjoy a video about style sheets. You always have an interesting perspective and explain things very well. It’s very nice to hear about aspects about designing that are not commonly discussed. ❤
I think I'm going to do a Style Sheet vid next.
Thanks Barbara! Very informative and helpful, both for those thinking about designing and for those knitting/crocheting because it helps them know what to look for and not to simply accept anything and be frustrated.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I hadn't thought of this video in that way but I love your take-away, your frustration with a pattern could simply be a disconnect between teaching/learning styles. It's not your fault and don't spend time beating your head against the wall.
@@WatchBarbaraKnit I have learned to read comments on Ravelry about patterns. You can learn so much that helps in making the decision to buy a pattern or not.
Yes, more videos like this, please.
Thank you for watching and for the feedback!
I love your way of making patterns. I had to get used to it, but it works great for me.
Thank you so much. I know I have a fairly distinct style and I really appreciate any and all knitters who vibe with me LOL!
This video was great. An important topic that is not often discussed. I would love to hear you thouights on style sheets in the future.
I had planned on covering style sheets here but figured no one would listen for another 30 minutes LOL. I think I will do one just for SS.
Graphic communications - what a neat degree!
I even worked in the printing industry for several years ... but then things got weird LOL.
I would love to hear you info dump more on this subject! As a tunisian chrocheter, i find myself "winging it" for most of my makes because the pattern just doesn't exist. Hearing your thought processes has given me so much more insight on how to leave myself better notes. Thank you!
LOL, I totally forgot about the whole "info dump" term. That is an excellent description of what I tend to do. I'm glad you enjoyed the video and it was helpful.
@@WatchBarbaraKnit I respect a good info dump. Especially when i find it interesting too. Lol
Hi, Barbara,
I enjoyed your presentation explaining the importance of formatting the pattern document because I also experienced the frustrations that you described. I am struggling with a pattern right now because of the unclear instructions. I tried to contact the designer, but so far, no response; therefore, my project is on hold until I can figure out what I am supposed to do. Very frustrating! Please, do more presentations along this topic. Love your knitting labs also and your books! Keep up the good work!🐑🦙🐑
Unclear instructions are super frustrating, I hope you get it figured out. Thank you for your kind comment.
I would love more topic like this.
In regard to fonts, I have had to ask a designer to change their pattern to a san serif font. I very much appreciated her willingness to do that for me. I'm dyslexic and the more serif thingies the more distortions I have; and therefore, the harder it is for me to read. I like that you use a font with few serif thingies. I agree that the numeral one should have that serif hat.
I love your pattern layout.
I have a strong preference for serif fonts but deliberately chose one that is minimally so to be mindful of the dyslexia issue. There is a really fine line that has to be walked and I, for one, would be grateful to be contacted if it made one of my patterns unusable for someone.
Yes so much to consider . Working on a pattern now that is frustrating because there are bold instructions with in each row but the row number is in the same non bold text and column with no spaces so they get lost. On the other hand I could be a smart user and 60 seconds with a highlighter would fix everything.
Sounds like a highlighter might be your best bet. So sorry it is frustrating you.
Great job as usual!!
Thank you so much!
I appreciate this a lot. I am almost certainly never (okay, at least not in the next 10 years) design anything or release a pattern design. But I am going to consume them. And there are things that I detest in patterns and things I love. The serifs thing is 100% on point. And the 'don't be held to advertising/magazine standards'. I do 99% of my knitting/crochet digitally. PDFs on screen or Knit Companion on my phone. So I'm actually VERY BAD at taking notes. Which would make your patterns interesting in that I wouldn't need the extra space but white space is handy for resting the eyes or attempting to learn. =]
Negative space is so important in design and it is also one of the reasons for the sidebar. Your brain needs a place to rest. Wall o' text can be sensory overload.
Such an interesting topic! I’ve bought patterns I could not follow. Very frustrating! But maybe it wasn’t my skill set, it was my learning style. 🤔
It definitely could be a disconnect between teaching/learning styles. It's not anyone's "fault" but there will be less frustration if you find designers who speak your language.
@@WatchBarbaraKnit Yes! In general I have a hard time reading anything with too much “background noise”, like a printed newsletter with multiple articles close together. I appreciate your pattern for having some white space, for notes and also to make it easier for me to focus. 😊
These are important things to consider when putting anything out there there is one pattern that i just recently did where they put important notes and hints, but they put it one line too late to be of any use. I had to rip back or come up with mitigating strategies
Oh, that's super frustrating.
I'm OK with a bit of rambling. I'm in no rush. Besides, I'm usually curious about how things work and am impressed by how much thought you put into everything. 🙂
You are so right. I purchased so many patterns, beautiful patterns but the explanation doesn’t make sense or translate well.
It can be super frustrating. It really is a skill set you have to work on as a designer.
Do you have a template that you would be willing to share for those of us that aren't great at formatting?
I actually paid a graphic designer to create my template. Now it has evolved over the years as I made tweaks to it but it isn't really a plug and play template. Each pattern has to be customized within a framework to fit each pattern. So even if I shared it, I don't think it would be particularly useful to anyone else. Also, you would have to have the Adobe Creative Cloud license because it uses InDesign and Illustrator.
I’m watching to feel validated in missing a repeat section. I have to rip back 20 rows
Oh no, that is super frustrating. Have your preference of either some wine or chocolate as a reward!