Any long-time readers out there who remember back to 2005 when I decided to knit my niece a Communion Shawl?

Haunted Memories

I recall now what a shitty pattern writer I was!

I was both careless and over-confident enough to not have my patterns test-knit.  Bad combination.

That shit comes back to bite you.  My over-confidence convinced me I should publish the pattern out on Ravelry and make a little money for my efforts.  So, I did.  Publish the pattern, that is…not make money.  I hardly sold any of those patterns.  Which is probably a good thing, since someone recently purchased the pattern, looking to complete a lacy wrap for someone about to receive First Communion in 3 weeks.

The first row, she can’t get the numbers to work.  The very first row.

Do I remember ANYTHING about this pattern?  Uh, no.  So I go back to re-create the stitch pattern and retro-test-knit the garment.

There are a lot of designers who get snooty when knitters find mistakes in their patterns.  I am not one of them.  If someone has a problem with one of my patterns, it is usually because there is either a mistake (or two) or because I wasn’t clear in the instructions.  Sometimes, it is user error, but not usually with my patterns.

Suffice it to say, I found two mistakes in the Communion Shawl pattern and corrected them both.  To try and compensate for having a customer proofread my pattern, I issued a refund.

I will say that my pattern-writing skills have improved a LOT in 14 years.  To avoid ghosts of future-pasts coming to haunt me again, I think I’ll go review my older patterns.  Just to check.

Current Knitting/Spinning

I’m down to three active projects.  The Tilt Cardigan, the Biased Striped Stole and the Tommy’s Preferred Blend spinning project. Yes, I finished another pair of cranked socks yesterday.

These socks have a very dense fabric.  The yarn was a bit too large for my machine, but I made it work.  I did end up making a few mistakes (dropped stitches, slipped stitches).  But even correcting the 2 or 3 mistakes and kitchnering the toe, it still only took me a few days for a beautiful pair of socks.

The only other project I worked on since Wednesday is the Biased Striped Stole.

Only one reader weighed in, but I had already decided to go with the yellow.

The accent color is really more squash than mustard, but I think it will look nice when it’s finished.  It uses quite a bit more of the squash later on in the design, but I had to decide on the color for this one lonely stripe now.