Take our Quick Pattern Survey
Note: The survey was opened all of February 2015. It’s closed now, but you can read about the results in this post. We’d also love any feedback you’d like to leave in comments.
The next pattern in our Showy Rib series is about to be announced. I’d like you to decide how it will look.
TMI? Our blog, website and designs are centered around sharing new knitting techniques; “Nuances” like the Showy Decrease, Flat i-Cord and Resilient Cast On, to name a few. You can learn to use them in our patterns, then include them in your other knitting projects. That means I really want you to understand why it works, so we include notes, sample swatches and tips to help make it clear. But when is all this extra information too much?
What would your ideal pattern look like?
The question is what’s the best way to give you the information… in the pattern or separately online. The teacher in me wants to include everything in the pattern itself, but sometimes all that information makes a simple idea look more complicated. I could move some help online, but that means you need to be near the internet when you have a question. So what’s a girl to do?
Here are three pattern design options to think about.
- Integrated Pattern: Tips are on each page next to the related section as needed. Designer intro gives an overview and pattern notes explain everything up front.
- Segmented Pattern: Move tips and help sections to the end of the pattern. Link to blog replaces designer’s comments.
- Simple Pattern: Basic info with links to help on the blog and website pattern page.
Free pattern to help you decide.
Here are two versions of the Seismic Scarf pattern to compare and a sneak peek at the blog post. This is a pretty simple pattern so they are in format 1 and 3. The layout becomes even more important as we introduce some of our more complex ideas and patterns in the upcoming months. Seismic Scarf
The survey has 9 quick questions ending with which of the 3 options above you prefer.
Thanks! I can’t wait to see what you have to say and feel free to add any comments below to help us move in the right direction.
New to this site after an email turned up in my inbox – great info, thanks. Will definitely try some of these new ideas. Did the survey but code for pattern did not work.
When you take the survey the Ravelry code is on the opening screen. If you missed it just send me a note.
Thanks Doreen. My fault! I forgot to hit start in Ravelry. It should be up and running now.
Thanks Laura. Thought I remembered the code but apparently not and survey page tells me I’ve already done it! Any chance of getting it again?
I love the blog and took the survey. Not sure how to get the coupon for the 2nd free pattern
I love this site. Very useful info. I missed the code.
I just found your blog and like the way you explain the different techniques. Learning all kinds of new things.
I must apologise, for what I have to say will sound very harsh indeed, and I really appreciate your mission to improve knitting with better techniques, it is one I fully support and even do myself in my personal life.
Sadly, I find it quite hard to swallow how you present every technique as a new invention, when some most certainly are not. Others…how do you really know nobody used them before?
Take the “wavy-tail” cast on for instance. Casting on in purl may not be well known, but so many Youtube videos show you how to do it (even for old Norwegian/twisted German cast on) that you can hardly even call it an unvention. So aptly coined by Elizabeth Zimmermann, “unvention” is in my opinion a more respectful term to use when it comes to knitting and other crafts traditionally done by women. As skills have been discovered and handed down through generations, and that knitting is done all over the world with different techniques (Russian, Continental, English/throwing (which actually is the oldest technique, invented in the Middle East)) nobody knows the full scope of every technique invented and in use, not to mention lost during the ages. To then call something an invention, that is a bit grandiose. And also false and rude, for those tricks that a quick google search reveals are already in use.
I hope you may reconsider how you introduce your knitting nuances in the future. The best loved knitting designers, indeed the best loved people everywhere, are generally the nice ones.
Wow Laura, love the site you have provided for us, many of your techniques/ideas are new to me, and I am sure they are to alot of us out here. Your presentation of the patterns and instructions are very clear and easy to understand. I am so glad I found your enlivened knitting site, you will help me become a better and more enthusiastic knitter.
Thanks, for the wonderful site where everything old seems new again.
Veronika asked a very valid question about originality. I just published a new post called Creativity and Originality in which I hope I have addressed her concerns.
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