I have been knitting and crocheting for more than 25 years. When I was a kid I was always wearing something made by myself. But after getting older I enjoyed the process of making things and not the result. Even now I have lots of unfinished sweaters in my wardrobe. Every time I see them I promise myself to bring them to life, but time passes and nothing happens. Few years ago I started to think of selling my stuff, but the idea was so unshaped and it took long time before it came true. Few months ago I opened my shop on Etsy.com and a month ago I created my first pattern.
Creating patterns is a very nice thing to do and I really enjoy making them. I can spend long hours with my hook, yarn and camera, and then some more hours in front of computer writing instructions and putting them together with pictures. But then a question comes if I have to test my pattern or not.
I made a small research reading other people’s opinions. Some designers are very confident in their skills and they consider themselves the best testers for their own patterns. As I found out many people create a pattern and then test it themselves to knit or crochet few more items. Some designers ask their friends to test for them. Some don’t test at all.
I have a journalistic background. I worked as a journalist in a newspaper and an editor of a magazine. I have participated in creating articles from both sides and I know for sure that every text must be edited few times by different people. And every time mistakes will be found. And I know how confusing it is when you crochet or knit something according to the pattern but suddenly something goes wrong and you don’t understand why. And you have to remake your rows again and again, and still you don’t achieve the desired result. So my strong opinion is that every pattern must be tested by few different people before being distributed.
