I’m still working on my shawl/wrap pattern. I’d say I’m 85% figured out at this point. It’s a little tedious. Get idea, crochet swatch, see what doesn’t what’s in your head, figure out why, get idea to fix that, crochet swatch, see what doesn’t match what’s in your head, figure out way.
Rather, rinse, repeat.
You get started on something and you think it’s going to be so easy, “oh, yeah, I just have to do this!” then you realize you hadn’t thought about the relationship of one kind of stitch to another. Then you realize that direction is way more important that you would have expected. Oh, and drape! You get going along and it feels more like a heavy scarf than a light wrap. Frog, pick a new hook, take notes. Start over. Pick a new yarn, frog, start over.
Julie has volunteered to be a tester. This means that I need to write directions in a straightforward and coherent manner. It also means that the directions can’t just be a series of notes that only make sense to me. The awesome thing about having a tester work your pattern is that you get real feedback about the instructions. The thing that sucks is that I can’t just throw out some unknown technique that I made up on the fly to make smooth edges or to hide an inherent flaw in the design. I have to actually come up with answers for the bumpy edges (mmmmbeaded eadging) and I have to fix that flaw.
This whole process has made me really appreciate designers even more. This is why I have to pay for the good designs! You get so used to finding free designs online that you are prone to act the brat when you see something you like and discover you have to pay for it. A lot of work goes into designing a pattern!
All of this work on this pattern has meant that my other projects are taking a back seat. It also means I’ve not updated ravelry lately or taken photos. Oh well. It will get there!