The Design Diaries: test knitting

Now that the Boat Race Hat prototypes are finished, and the pattern is written, it's time to move on to the next steps: testing and editing. I suppose you can argue that doing both test knitting AND tech editing is a bit redundant, but I would disagree.

Test knitting is a great way to get feedback on your pattern before it goes live - you'll be able to know if the wording in one section isn't clear, or if you've left out an important line of the instructions. You'll be able to get a good sense of the yardage requirements for each size (as long as your testers are knitting to the correct gauge), and as a bonus, you'll have a number of projects that can be uploaded to Ravelry when the pattern is published, so people will be able to see your design knit up in different colours or yarns right from the beginning.

With that in mind, the next step for the Boat Race Hats is test knitting - I find that test knitters can very often pinpoint a number of errors and inconsistencies that I would otherwise depend on a tech editor to find. And while tech editing is crucial for any knitting pattern, it's also a service that has to be (and should be!) paid for. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have my tech editor spend their time on a pattern that's been tested and had most of the kinks worked out already.

In an ideal world, test knitters would also be paid for their work, but sadly that's not something I'm able to do at this stage, so I have to rely on knitters who enjoy getting a sneak peek at a new pattern, or like helping to work out the kinks. You can pick your yarn, and I'm happy to send you a copy of the pattern when it's finished, as well as your choice of another of my self-published patterns if you'd like one.

Here are the two hats and their specs/requirements. If anyone is interested in test knitting, please give me a shout in the comments or head over to my Ravelry group and post in the Boat Race test knitting thread that's there.

A bit about both hats: both hats are sized in S (M, L) sizes, and both are worked from charts with no written directions.

Oxford

This hat is a slouchy, comfy knit, with two staggered twisted stitch boat motifs worked on a reverse stockinette background. The only complicated bit is the knitter will need to be comfortable shifting the crown decreases to keep the stitch motif intact as much as possible as the crown gets towards the top.

Techniques: twisted stitches and working stitches through the back loop.

Yarn: the large size pictured used less then one skein of baa ram ewe Titus (a fingering weight yarn) held doubled, so under 175 yds/160 m. Appropriate yarns would be sock yarn held double or DK yarn, or any yarn that knits to gauge specified.

Gauge: 23 sts/30 rows over 4 inches/10 cm in reverse stockinette.

Needles: US 4/3.5 mm circulars or dpns, as preferred

Cambridge

This hat is a close-fitting beanie style. Although the stitch pattern is worked all over, the crown decreases are much simpler then in Oxford.

Techniques: twisted stitches and working stitches through the back loop.

Yarn: the large size pictured used less then one skein of baa ram ewe Titus (a fingering weight yarn) held doubled, so under 175 yds/160 m. Appropriate yarns would be sock yarn held double or DK yarn, or any yarn that knits to gauge specified.

Gauge: 23 sts/30 rows over 4 inches/10 cm in reverse stockinette.

Needles: US 4/3.5 mm circulars or dpns, as preferred

And views of the tops of the hats:

Although I wanted to get these up and published earlier this year (like in time for The Boat Race. Hahahahahaha!), I'm not in a rush to get them out ASAP, and the deadline for this test is going to be the end of September. If you're interested, leave a comment on this post, or PM me on Ravelry, letting me know the size you'd like to test, and the yarn you'd like to use. If you're on Ravelry, you can also post in the testing thread in my group. Thanks!

Latticewing

Latticewing in The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering

For someone who designs knitwear, it's been quite a while since I've released a pattern. There are a number of reasons why I'm really pleased to be letting this design out into the world: first off, this pattern grew out of my desire to use up some really lovely yarn that I'd spun for my Ennea Collective Design, the Fjord Mitts. I cast on for the handspun prototype just after Christmas, when the business of the season meant that garter stitch was really all I could handle.

Latticewing in handspun

I knit and knit and knit and knit, watching the stripes come up and wondering how far I'd be able to get before I ran out of yarn. Thankfully the yarn held out until the shawl was about as big as I wanted it to be, and I then happily used up all the natural colored Shetland (and then some! Which necessitated some frantic last minute spinning of more edging yarn) in the knitted on edging.

And then the handspun shawl sat for a bit while I pondered a) a smaller version and b) a commercial yarn. A trip to Unravel and a conversation with The Fibre Company resulted in generous yarn support in the form of a couple of hanks of Canopy Fingering in a lovely soft green. A little while later, there was a second, smaller shawl. Then there was a pattern, and a photoshoot on the Dorset Coast path, and now it's ready to be let out of the nest for all the rest of you!

Sizes: small (large), approximately 15 (19) in/38 (48.5) cm deep and 87 (112) in/221 (284.5) cm wide along longest edge after blocking.

Yarn: The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering (50% alpace/30% merino/20% bamboo), 2 (3) skeins, or approximately 400 (600) yds/366 (549) m of fingering weight yarn. 

The pattern is very customizable, and includes instructions for adapting the shawl to your available amount of yarn. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, and happy shawl knitting!

Latticewing 

£3.50

The Design Diaries: Writing the Pattern

The important starting elements

My Boat Race hat project is now at that critical stage where things can really go off the rails for me: writing the pattern. The prototypes are done, I've got several pages in my notebook covered in notes, and it's time to sit down and translate those scribbles into something semi-coherent that I can send off to test knitters and my tech editor.

I really enjoy writing patterns. In many ways, it's very similar to writing a scientific paper (as I suggested in my recent interview with Kate Atherley on the most recent Yarn in the City Podcast). There are very distinct pieces that need to be included for both types of writing to work well.

The important pieces of the writing

Kate talks in depth about the essential pieces of a knitting pattern in her new book, Pattern Writing for Knit Designers (which I think should be required reading for everyone who even begins to jot down patterns on the backs of Starbucks napkins), but the basic premise is: tell people why they want to knit your pattern, tell them whats interesting/challenging/exciting about the pattern, tell them what materials they need, tell them how to do it, and tell them how to end. Pretty simple, right?

Here's where I get in to trouble: I've got the prototypes, I've got the notes, I've got the pieces ready to go (if only mostly in my head), and I sit down at the computer and I...faff on the Ravelry forums, or check to see if I've gotten any new and exciting email in the last five minutes, play a few rounds of Frozen Free Fall, text Allison to harass her, hop on Twitter to see who's in a righteous outrage at the moment, check some pretty pictures on Instagram...

You can see where this is going, right? Pure, unadulturated procrastination. And I have to admit, right now I am procrastinating not only on writing these hat patterns, but also on writing a scientific paper, so my procrastination instinct is not limited (sadly!) to knitting patterns!

Here's where you all come in: I am, in this blog post, publicly announcing that I will use this weekend to write up these two patterns, with the goal of sending them to my fabulous tech editor at the beginning of the week (I don't know if she reads the blog, but if she does: consider yourself warned D!). And I give everyone reading this permission to call me out if I don't post some kind of update on this project by Tuesday morning.

I'm ready for some real pattern crafting this weekend. See you on the other side!

The Design Diaries: Setbacks

I'm sure I'm not unique amongst knitwear designers in that the design process doesn't always run a smoothly as we'd like everyone to believe. I've hit that inevitable point in my design process, the moment that always comes sooner or later - its roadblock time. Otherwise known as: Rachel has screwed something up and would like to consider throwing this damn project in the corner until it comes to a clear understanding of what it's done wrong, and promises to behave better in the future. Sometimes its a mental block in writing the pattern or fixing what my tech editor has picked up, sometimes it's a lack of motivation in knitting the sample. This time around, it's a size issue (TWSS):

I can happily report that the first hat is done, the Rower's version with lots of twisted stitches and lovely ribbing. I've very pleased with how it's turned out.

This hat now has crown shaping and is even blocked!

And I was going great guns on the slouchy Spectator's version - instead of having an all over pattern, this version has a couple of larger boat motifs that come from Swatch #4. Yesterday, I managed to get through the entire 32 rounds of Chart 1.

The first boat is done...

And I spread out the hat in my lap, and looked at it. Then I looked at it again. I turned it around and looked a third time. Then I put it on and went to look in the mirror. My suspicion was correct: the damned hat was too big. The ribbing was fine, but I had increased too many stitches at the start of the body of the hat. I wanted it to be slouchy, but not that slouch! So off to the frog pond it went - ouch!

...and undone. 

Hat #2 has been ripped back to the ribbing, numbers have been re-crunched, and the knitting is back on. In this scenario, the pattern may go to the tech editor without the second hat being finished, but hopefully it will be done soon.

We're going to need a lot more coffee.

The Design Diaries: just keep swatching...

In the first instalment of The Design Diaries, I talked about the inspiration behind my current project. Today I'm going to talk about everyone's most favourite topic: swatching.

Part 2A: Yarn Choice

In this particular project, I knew which yarn I was going to use almost as soon as I knew what I was going to design. At last year's Unravel, I was Allison's booth babe at the Sweet Georgia Yarns stand. We were right next to the wonderful and lovely Rachel Coopey, who was selling her then-most recent book. She also had a couple of crates of Titus yarn, from Baa Ram Ewe, and I was totally smitten with a couple of the colours. When only one skein of one of My Colours was left, I kept flinching every time someone picked it up. Finally, I just bought it so I could stop glaring at people who were fondling My Yarn. 

When the idea for the Boat Race Hats popped into my head, I knew that this was the project for that particular skein of yarn, in that particular colour. Thankfully, Baa Ram Ewe has just released this year's new colours, and one of those was perfect for the other side of the river.

So after deciding on the yarn and the colours, the next question was: how many people will want to knit a fingering weight hat (mostly) in reverse stockinette? Or rather: could I knit a fingering weight hat in reverse stockinette quickly enough for the time frame I have in mind?

The answer to that question was, as you may have guessed, a resounding no! So I decided to swatch with the yarn held doubled, hoping that it would knit up faster AND be a bit warmer against bitter river winds.

Part 2B: The Swatching

I am one of those odd people who really enjoys swatching. Well, I really enjoy it up to the point where I'm sick of it and just want to cast on already. So I pulled out some needles, some graph paper and some stitch dictionaries and tried out some combinations.

Swatch #1:

Worked on US 6/4.0 mm needles, the standard Tree of Life stitch pattern from Barbara Walker with slipped stitches, but worked in twisted stitches instead of normal.

Verdict: needs a smaller needle size, and no slipped stitches. Twisted ribbing is good though.

Swatch 1 - good for ruling things out

Swatch #2:

US 5/3.75 mm needles, again with twisted rib, but no slipped stitches. Also tried alternating the branches (oars) coming in to more closely mimic how a rowing shell looks from above.

Verdict: fabric is better, but probably still needs to drop down one more needle size. Working twisted stitches every row way better then slipped stitch version, not sure about the alternating oar arrangement.

Swatch 2 - getting closer...

Swatch #3:

US 4/3.5 mm needles, and more variations on the twisted rib and Tree of LIfe. 

Verdict: right needle size, hooray! I'm intrigued by carrying the twisted stitches from the oars along the vertical. Some variation of this will work well for the beanie version with a closely packed stitch pattern, but it's not going to be strong enough for the slouch, with a widely spaced stitch motif.

Swatch 3 - right fabric, maybe

Swatch #4:

US 4/3.5. mm needle, a larger motif that I'm looking at for the slouchy version of the hat. 

Verdict: I like the three stitch wide twisted stitch boat, and I'm also a big fan of having the oars stop when they reach the 3 stitch column, rather then feeding in a becoming part of it. 

I think the oars need to be longer then they are in the lower iterations, but this is just about right.

So now I'm at the stage where I've got a good sense of what the fabric is I'm aiming for, as well as the bones of the stitch patterns. And it's definitely time to start the prototypes:

I love 1x1 twisted ribbing...