Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

Shetland Wool Week

I am thrilled to announce that I will be teaching a short session on writing knitting patterns for publication as part of Shetland Wool Week.

My class is called Making a Knitting Career - Part 1, and even more exciting is that Kate Davies is teaching Part 2. I'll be running you through how to take a basic design idea and write it up for publication. I'll also be covering some of the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them. Kate's class covers how to prepare your designs and sell them through Ravelry. Having not self-published on Ravelry, I'm a bit tempted to sign up for that class myself!

Both sessions take place on Monday 8th October 2012 at Jamieson & Smith in Lerwick, Shetland, and you can book by telephoning them on 01595 693579.

For more information about Shetland Wool Week, visit their website: Shetland Wool Week

Other delights of the week include: A number of sessions on Shetland Lace taught by Gudrun Johnston (how I wish I was going to be there long enough to do some of those classes!), a session on Susan Crawford's research for her Vintage Shetland collection (I'm concerned that I will need to make every garment in this collection, and there just aren't enough hours in the day!), and much, much more.

Knitting with The Color Guys

Way back in the mists of early 2011, I worked on a book for one of the biggest names in knitting. I created the charts for Kaffe Fasett and Brandon Mably's book of accessories; Knitting with The Color Guys.

This was one of my very first jobs following my move to freelance work, and it was a brilliant opportunity for a number of reasons. Firstly, there's no way to avoid the fact that Kaffe's eye for colour combinations is extraordinary. There are so many designs that I would just love to cast on immediately. Secondly, I learnt about a million things about charting in Illustrator during the project. With so many charts to create, I turned to tutorials from Adobe a number of times, and discovered all sorts of tricks and new tools. I love to learn new things, so this was excellent. The third, really major, bonus of this job was that it involved working closely with Sarah Hatton, who was the Pattern Writer/Editor for the project. Any job that requires me to stay in touch with Sarah is a winner in my book! She's a legend.

© Sixth & Spring Books

This half-circle throw is just delicious. I want to wrap myself in its wonderful happy, smiling colours. It reminds me of late spring-early summer, when all the colours in the garden are vivid and brighter than life.

The book is divided into chapters which group the colour palettes in use; Soft Tones, Singing Colour, Moody Hues and Rich Shades. The half circle wrap (above) is from the singing colour chapter, naturally! And the following Multistripe Stole (my all-time favourite from the book), is in the soft tones collection.

© Sixth & Spring Books

This stole makes me want to run down to the yarn shop, buy everything I need and cast on instantly. Not the effect I expected this book to have on me! And if I'm being honest, there are some projects in here that just don't quite work for me - the Dotty Cushions would have been greatly improved by using a yarn with more bounce than Rowan Summer Tweed. That said, I feel that there are more than enough projects that I like to make this book well worth its place on my bookshelf.

In a bizarre twist of coincidence, Eskimimi chose Kaffe as one of her knitting heroes for her post in Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, and was kind enough to include me as an example of inspiring craft bloggers. To be included in the same post as Kaffe was more than a bit of a compliment!

Disclaimer: As I worked on this book, I was provided with a copy free of charge.

Work is fun!

I am lucky enough to have a brilliant set of regular clients who keep me out of mischief with new and exciting projects. I don't think it's a secret that I love working with all of them - you only have to look back at posts about patterns in Simply Knitting and The Knitter and finished book projects for Fyberspates, Susan Crawford, Jamieson and Smith or Sarah Hatton to see that I am just loving my freelance life!

Today I'm delighted to add a new logo to my "I'm working with..." list, and it belongs to Kate Davies. To say that I was excited to receive an email from her asking if I was available back in November is something of an understatement! I'm not sure I calmed back down again for at least a day or two! I then went on to technical edit Boreal for her, and we've just finished work on Betty Mouat and the BMC (Betty Mouat Cowl).

Betty Mouat © Kate Davies (used with kind permission)

Betty posed some interesting technical editing conundrums. Not least of which, that to begin with there were 154 different possible size combinations, and 3 shades of yarn to contend with (that meant a total of 462 figures for the yarn requirements)! After some deliberation, Kate decided that not all of the possible combinations of under- and full-bust measurements would either be required, or would give sensible shaped garments. For example, the smallest under-bust measurement (24.5"/62cm) going to the largest full-bust (50"/127cm) seemed unlikely to be a combination in great demand! We narrowed the options down so that they cover a range from cup size AA to KK, thus reducing somewhat the number of yarn quantity calculations required, and general potential for errors.

 
The BMC © Kate Davies (used with kind permission)

Both Betty Mouat and the BMC use Fleegle's no-purl garter stitch in the round method. This is a really nifty technique whereby you work alternating RS and WS rounds using two balls of yarn. You can see more on Fleegle's blog, or by watching the Betty Mouat tutorials on Kate's website. Mel did a fabulous job of filming these techniques - I find her voice so reassuring and confidence building. I can't wait to try this out!

We ended up charting the stitch pattern in such a way that you can read the chart either for standard knitting in the round, with all rows read right to left and alternate rows purled, or alternating right to left and left to right so that you can also read it for the no-purl garter stitch version. Hopefully much easier to do than to explain!

© Kate Davies (used with kind permission)

I absolutely love the colour combination she's used in the cowl, and as soon as my finger is up to it, this will be going on my needles. It just sings of summer days at the beach, and ice cream, and rainbows, and all good things!

Kate is absolutely brilliant to work with, and I am really looking forward to more projects with her as the year goes on.

If you are interested in either of the patterns shown here, then they are both available as part of Kate's Textisles magazine issue 2. This issue focuses on swimming attire and includes 3 articles by Kate and 1 on the rise and fall of the hand-knitted swimming costume by the fabulous Susan Crawford. I love it when people I work with come together in a project like that! The articles are all completely fascinating, and any of the components of this issue would be more than worth the £3.95 price tag on their own.

Drawing knitwear schematics in Illustrator: Part 3

Today's post covers refining your outline shape - adding curves and details - as well as adding measurements and aligning. This completes the series on using Illustrator to draw knitwear schematics. The first two posts in this series covered setting up preferences and layers in Illustrator, and drawing basic outline shapes. 

 This is the basic angular outline shape for our schematic. It is the schematic for the Droplet Bolero from A Stitch in Time 2 (which should be landing on my doormat some time today or tomorrow - squeal!).

In order to add curves to the shape, we will convert some of the anchor points. So for example, at the bottom right of the diagram, we want to introduce a curve after the welt. Select the outline using the black Selection Tool, and then choose the Convert Anchor Point tool. This will be found underneath the Add Anchor Point tool that you used earlier (click and hold on the fountain pen icon to see the other options).

You then click on the point where you want to introduce a curve, and drag a handle out a little way from the point. Don't be alarmed when your lines look like they have "gone wrong", this is normal.

Curves are added using a Bézier tool. This is particularly brilliant, because it means that your image can be scaled as large as you wish, without pixellating. The curve is controled at each side of the anchor point, using the two handles (shown with small blue circles in the image above).

Get a feel for how the handles control the curve by using the white Direct Selection Tool to move the handles round. Try moving them further away from the anchor point, following the same direction, and see how this changes the curve.

We only want a curve on the upper side of the anchor point, so we will first of all remove the handle on the lower side. You do this by simply picking up that lower handle, using the white Direct Selection arrow, and drag the handle back onto the anchor point. You should "feel" it snap away. Drop it there, and you will now only have a handle (and thus a curve) on the upper side of the point.

Adjust the remaining handle until you are happy with the shape of the outline. Repeat this process at all the points where you require curves. You can use guides as before to ensure that the curves are the same on both sides of the outline. Just snap the handles to guide points.

 Now that the outline is complete, lock the outline layer, and unlock the detail on outline layer.

Add lines to your drawing to show details such as front openings, armhole shape, pockets etc... Use the Line Segment Tool, and set the stroke properties in the same way that you did for the outline shape.

Convert anchor points to add curves to the detail lines as you wish.

If you want to add two elements that look identical, but are mirror images of each other, then you can use the reflect tool.

Select the item you wish to reflect, using the black Selection Tool. Then go into the Object menu and choose Transform... From the submenu, you can then pick Reflect...

Choose whether you want to reflect it horizontally or vertically, and then rather than hitting OK, choose copy. This creates another object, rather than transforming the selected object.

Then simply move the new front edge line into place, using the arrow keys.

Add any other details, that you require, to the outline drawing. Then lock the detail on outline layer and unlock the outline layer. 

Select the outline shape and making sure that the fill toggle is to the front, add a white fill to the basic shape.

If you are happy with the shape, then lock the outline layer and unlock the scan layer. You can now delete the photograph out of your file. Then relock the scan layer, and unlock the measurements layer, as it's time to add some arrows to the diagram.

Arrows are added very simply as lines using the line segment tool. If you hold down shift while drawing the line, it will automatically be either horizontal, vertical or on a 45 degree angle.

Once you have added the line, you can use the Stroke palette to choose its properties - thickness, shape of arrowheads and so on.

At this point it may be helpful to make the guides visible again (select Show Guides from the View menu, and Guides submenu). Be sure to use the white direct selection arrow to change the length or position of the ends of your arrows, or you will stretch them, thus making the lines different thicknesses.

Unlock the text layer, and use the Type Tool to start a text box. Simply type your measurements into the box, then choose the font and size from the Character palette.

To make your text align nicely with the arrows, you will need to choose which object is the Key Object. Once you have selected a Key Object, it doesn't move, and the other object must move to align with the Key.

Select two objects using the black selection arrow.

Then hover over the item you want to align to (in this case it's the arrow which has been carefully placed to line up with the shoulders) until you see the black arrowhead, and click on the arrow again. If you have done this correctly, the arrow (or your Key Object) will have a thick highlight over it.

Now choose how you want the text and arrow aligned, and only the text will move. I want these horizontally centre aligned, so I click on the icon which shows the objects in that formation (second from left in the picture below).

Repeat the process, adding measurements and arrows as necessary to your diagram. 

Once you are happy with your finished diagram, be sure to lock all of the layers, and make sure that they are all set to be visible.

You can then choose to output your diagram in a wide range of formats. If you are working on an InDesign file for your pattern, the Illustrator file can be placed straight into it. Alternatively, you can choose from png/pdf/tif/jpeg/windows meta file and many other formats for your finished schematic.

 Please don't hesitate to leave a comment if you have any questions. I hope that this series has been useful.

Jen x

Bambeanies, Blisco and Flukra - Tech editing work

There has been lots of technical editing work going on here behind the scenes, and everything seems to have been published at once! I'm a bit behind with letting you know what I've been up to, so here's a bit of a catch-up post.

I've long been an admirer of Woolly Wormhead's fabulous hat designs. She was present at the trip to Get Knitted in January 2008, that turned me into a Knitter. I learnt how to do both socks and lace that day, and haven't really looked back since. When I started work on The Knitter magazine, I was really keen to tempt Woolly into doing a hat design for us, so I was really pleased when Pavone was published, very shortly after I went freelance. Fast-forward a few months, and Woolly asked me if I would like to copy edit her latest book, Bambeanies. What could I say, but yes?

There are so many appealing designs in the book that it's really hard to know where to start with recommendations! Almost all of the patterns go up to adult sizes, so even if you don't have little ones to knit for, the book is well worth a look. You can order it (in either print or digital form) from Woolly's website here: Bambeanies, and you will also find a gallery of all the designs in the book at the bottom of that page.

Next up is Blisco.

Blisco is the latest design to be released by Lily France. It's a top-down set-in sleeve sweater, with 3/4 length sleeves. The design is really cleverly constructed with interest throughout. I tech-edited the pattern for Lily, and as ever, she was a delight to work with.

Finally, following a conversation on Twitter about using Adobe Illustrator for drawing charts, Gudrun Johnson asked if I might tech edit her Flukra shawl pattern. Once I had recovered myself, and placed my inner-fan-girl back in her box, I managed to accept the offer in a semi-composed manner.

Gudrun's designs are inspired by her Shetland roots, and if you haven't had a proper look at her first collection - The Shetland Trader book 1 - then what are you waiting for? They are the perfect combination of flattering, wearable knits, with interest in both the design and construction.

Flukra is equally gorgeous, with a simple garter stitch centre followed by a delicate lace border and edging. I can't wait to cast on one of my own. You can find out more about this design on Gudrun's website: The Shetland Trader - Flukra

Can you see what's been keeping me out of mischief? And there's more to come...

Drawing knitwear schematics in Illustrator: Part 2

Last week's post covered setting up your preferences and layers in Illustrator. In this post, I will cover drawing basic outline shapes, then I will do a post on finishing off the schematic, covering things like adding curves and alignment.

I like to draw schematics from an overhead flat shot of the garment. It means that the drawing will give a good impression of the shape of the piece, without having to spend ages drawing lines to scale from measurements. To get a good outline photo, make sure that you take the picture from directly overhead. The garment in the example below is the Droplet Bolero from A Stitch in Time vol 2.

If you can't find one of the palettes I refer to, look for it in the Window menu, and once it is open, you can drag and drop it onto the right hand side of the screen.

The image will be built from the bottom upwards, starting with the main outline of the piece (details like front openings or front neckline can be added later).

Unlock your bottom layer (in my case it is called Scan) by clicking on the padlock icon on the Layers palette. Click on the layer so that it is highlighted in blue, and therefore active. Then choose Place... from the File menu and select the image file for the photograph you wish to use.

Use the black arrow (the Selection Tool) to resize the photograph. Holding down shift while you do so will ensure that the proportions of the picture are retained. If you also hold down the alt key, then the photo will stay centred in the same place. Resize the photograph so that it sits comfortably on the artboard, with space around it for arrows and measurements.

Once you are happy with the size, then lock the Scan layer. Now you won't be able to move the photograph by mistake. If you need to adjust it later, you will simply need to unlock the layer again before making any changes.

Now unlock the layer where you plan to draw the outline shape of the garment. Click on the layer so that it is highlighted in blue. Make at this point that you have selected Snap to Grid in the View menu.

Then choose the Rectangle tool from the palette of options on the left of the screen. If you can't see a plain rectangle, the it might be hiding underneath one of the other shape tools (ellipse, polygon, star, rounded rectangle etc...). Just click and hold on the tool button to see the other options and select the rectangle tool.

Draw a rectangle over the body of your garment.

Then select the fill by making sure that the filled box is to the front on the toggle on the left-hand side of the screen.

And choose a fill colour from the Swatch palette (or use the Colour palette if you want more control of the exact shade). I usually fill the outline shape with white. This means that if your schematic is placed onto a coloured section of page, the outline shape will have a white background. If you have no fill (the red slash through a white box), then the schematic will have the same background colour as whatever it is placed over.

Then click on the stroke toggle, so that the outlined square comes to the front.

You can now choose the outline for your schematic. You select the colour you want from either the Swatch or Colour palettes as before. Then you also need to select how thick your outline line will be, and whether it will have sharp or rounded corners. You make these choices on the Stroke palette (the button with different types of horizontal line) on the right-hand side of the screen.

I use a 1 pt line thickness with rounded corners and ends. Play around with the options to see what effects you like best.

To make the outline into your desired shape, you will need to add some more anchor points (unless you want to draw a schematic of a rectangle of course). Anchor points are the handles at the corners of your shape, and by adding more, you can make a more complex shape. Make sure that your rectangle is selected and you can see the selection outline and small square handles at the corners (in the picture above, showing the rectangle, these are shown in blue). Choose the Add Anchor Point tool from the tools on the left of the screen. It may be hidden under the Anchor Point tool, in which case click and hold to choose from the other options available. The tool looks like a fountain pen with a small plus sign beside it.

Use this tool to click on the outline shape to add points whereever you will want to put a corner in your shape. Add more than you think you will need as you can always subtract them later.

Then use the white arrow (Direct Selection tool) to select and move the new anchor points. In doing so you can start to create the shape that you require.

Continue to add anchor points and then move them until you are ready to fine-tune the shape. You may find it easier at this point to temporarily remove the fill from your shape, so that you can see the photograph below more clearly.

Having created the rough overall shape of the piece, we can now tweak it to ensure that elements are lined up correctly with each other. I will cover adding curves to the shape in the next post.

To check that your neckline is in the centre of the piece (assuming that it should be!), add some guides to the workspace. Guides are lines that won't appear in the final schematic and are just used to line things up.

Ensure that your rulers are visible at the top and left of your workspace. You can make them visible from the View menu. By clicking and dragging from the ruler, you can add guide lines to line up with elements such as the side seams, shoulder line, back neck or underarm. The guides below are shown in turquoise, with the selected guide appearing blue. 

When you select two guides, you can then see how far apart they are by clicking on Transform at the top of the workspace. In the example below, the two guides are 21 pt apart.

To make sure that the back neck is correctly centred, I will need to add another guide to the picture, that is 21 pt to the left of the right side seam (as we are looking at the diagram) guide. Select the guide at the right side seam. Press Shift+Cmd+M (or Shift+Control+M if you are using a PC) to bring up the move dialogue box, and select a horizontal move of -21 pt. For horizontal movement: negative numbers move objects the the left, positive numbers move to the right. And for vertical movement negative numbers move objects up and positive numbers move objects down (that confused me for a while!). Rather than clicking OK (which would move the selected guide), you can click on Copy, which will add another guide at the selected distance.

With a new guide added, you can then move the anchor point for the back neck so that it lines up with the guide. This ensures that your back neck is centred.

You can also add guides so that you can add anchor points at the same height on each side of the piece. Since Snap to Grid has been selected, all of the guides and anchor points should automatically be snapping to points 1 pt apart. In this way they will line up neatly.

The horizontal guide above has been added to show the end of the edging at the bottom of the bolero. Anchor points are added to the outline, in line with the guide, at both sides of the shape.

Once you are happy with the shape and placement of the corners of the piece, you can get rid of all of the guides by selecting Guides from the View menu, and then chosing the Hide Guides option. You may need them later when adding arrows, so it's best not to clear them at this stage.

You should now have a basic outline shape, ready to add curves and details.

Drawing knitwear schematics in Illustrator: Part 1

One of the many jobs that I've done while working on A Stitch in Time 2 is drawing schematics for each of the garments. I thought it might be helpful to do a quick run-down on drawing these, as it seems to be a question that pops up from time to time on designer blogs and in the designer's group on Ravelry. I am using Adobe ® Creative Suite 5 ® (CS5) and my copy of Illustrator ® is version 15.0.0. I work on a MacBook Pro using OS X version 10.6.8. Some aspects may look a little different if you are using a PC or an older version of Illustrator, however the differences shouldn't be too significant.

This tutorial will be split into 3 posts. This post deals with getting your work space set up. The next post will be published next week, and will cover drawing your outline shapes in Illustrator. And the final post will cover adding curves, alignment and adding measurements.

The first job is to get your Preferences set up correctly. In the Illustrator menu at the top left of your screen you will see Preferences, hover over it and then choose General from the menu. Clicking on General gives you the following dialogue box of general preferences:

For drawing charts and schematics for knitting patterns, you won't need to use most of the possible settings on Illustrator. The first choice is your keyboard increment. This determines how far things move when you use the up, down, left and right arrows on your keyboard. For drawing schematics, I usually have this set to 1 pt. Choose your increment, but don't hit the OK button just yet.

Use the drop-down menu at the top of the dialogue box to select the Units screen. Then make sure that all units are set to Points (of course if you would rather work in inches or millimetres or pixels, then do - just make sure that you have your keyboard increment set to a sensible value for your units). Again, don't click OK just yet, simply select the Guides and Grid screen.

I generally work with a dot style of grid, and gridlines every 100 pt with 100 subdivisions between them. This means if I am snapping things to my grid, I have good control over where shapes are going. For drawing charts, then 10 subdivisions is probably plenty (each subdivision will be 10 pt apart rather than 1 pt that I use for schematics). Go wild with your colour choices, but it's probably worth choosing a colour that you won't be using in your schematic or charts.

Having set up your Preferences, you can open a document. When you choose New... you will be asked for a document name and the size of your Artboard (the area on which you will be drawing). I've named this Sample and chosen A4 size.

If you aren't seeing the red gridlines you may need to choose Show Grid from the View menu.

The next step is to set up some layers to work on. I imagine these like sheets of tracing paper. They determine what shows up in your final image and you can move layers up and down like sheets of tracing paper in a stack. Things at the bottom of the stack may be covered up by the layers above. But they are more useful than that, because you can lock one or more layers while you work on others. So once your outline is finished you can lock it so that you don't mistakenly move things round while you are drawing arrows or something else. In fact, you can even make layers invisible for a while too, if that's useful.

I have my layers palette set up at the bottom of the options on the right of my screen. It's the button that looks like layers! If you can't see it, then you can choose Layers from the Window menu at the top. This will give you a Layers dialogue box that you can drag and drop over to the right of the screen.

You will automatically have one layer already. To add more, simply click on the little button at the top right of the Layers palette. It looks like 4 horizontal lines with a small downward pointing triangle to the left of the lines (on any of the palettes, this will give you more options). This gives you the layers options menu.

From this menu, you can choose to rename the current layer by going into the Options for "Layer 1"... dialogue box. You can also add new layers.

This is the dialogue box you get when you choose Add new layer...

Choose a name for your layer and click on OK.

I would suggest that for drawing schematics, it is useful to set up layers as follows:

There are 8 different layers and I've named them to give an idea of what I would use that layer for. You can move layers around by dragging and dropping them in your desired order. The eye symbols on the left show that all of these layers will be visible. If you click on the eye that layer will no longer be visible (and won't print out either). Next to the eyes are the padlocks. These determine whether a layer is locked or not. When it's locked you can't do anything in that layer. You can't even paste an item into the layer. The coloured strips next to the padlocks show you what colour the things in that layer will show up as when they are selected (this is just the boxes and handles round items that you use to move, resize and manipulate them, not the actual things you are drawing).

In the picture above you will see that the Scan layer is highlighted in blue. If that layer was unlocked, it would be the active layer, or the layer I was drawing in. If you have multiple layers open, then the blue highlight shows which you will be editing or drawing in. You can change the active layer by simply clicking on the layer you wish to be active.

You are now ready to start drawing things, so do come back next week for basic steps in drawing outline schematics in Illustrator.

I want to help you...

I'm not just an IAMS cat, I'm good at charts too...

I seem to have developed a constant companion. He wants to help with every aspect of work this week, and if I don't pay him enough attention, he gets grumpy. Sadly when Scooter gets grumpy he expresses it with claws and teeth.

Must go and find the water spray...

Pattern checking: Part 1 - basic information

Having eased you all in with some posts about things I have been making, I thought it was about time that I posted something geeky about knitting.

First up, what is the difference between pattern checking and technical editing?

I look at the two process as related, but different. Pattern checking is going through a pattern looking for errors, whereas for me, technical editing includes pattern checking, but also correcting any errors (with or without the help of the designer, as needed), re-writing sections for sense, and ensuring that the pattern is written in a consistent style.

We will come back to technical editing at a later date, but in the meantime, here are a few basic starting points for pattern checking. The remainder of this post covers the first step in checking a knitting pattern. It looks at the information section, and provides a checklist of sections that should be included at the start of any knitting pattern.

Size
Check that the size information is appropriate, and that any conversion between metric and imperial has been correctly carried out. If a pattern is designed with negaitive or positive ease, ensure that the ease is consistent across all sizes. Standard sizing tables are available from websites like Yarn Standards and Ysolda Teague.

Check that any tabulated size information matches the blocking diagram (if one has been provided), and that any sections that should add up, do so. Check length to armhole, armhole depth and shoulder drop add together to make total length. Double check these lengths against the written pattern (if lengths are given in the written pattern).

Yarn
Check that full information has been provided about the yarn. This should include, Yarn company name, range name, fibre content, mass and yardage (or meterage), shade name and any shade code used by the company. If possible, check this information against the yarn company's shade cards or website. Use Ravelry or online stores only as a last resort, as these can be subject to users inputting information incorrectly. Check that the yarn requirements seem appropriate (and if you have the knitted sample available, weigh it to check that it is correct). Check that the yarn specified seems appropriate for the tension information. Yarn companies often make one line in a number of weights (Rowan Pure Wool, Fyberspates Scrumptious, Patons 100% Cotton to name but a few), and it is all too easy to specify the wrong weight. Look at the classic stocking stitch tension information and see if it looks sensible with the pattern tension information. E.g. DK yarns usually knit to around 22 sts and 30 rows, so a cable pattern in DK yarn might knit to 26 sts and 30 rows, as cables will pull inwards in comparison with stocking stitch. If a pattern had a tension of 28 sts and 36 rows to 10cm over stocking stitch, it is unlikely that it is knitted with DK yarn, so be sure to check again.

Tension
Check the tension of each stitch pattern against the sample garment. Ensure that these match the tensions given in the pattern, and that as far as possible, all stitch patterns have tension information. Being able to match a cable pattern tension doesn't guarantee that you will match a stocking stitch or colourwork tension in the same pattern, so to ensure success, each tension needs to match. The other reason for needing all tensions, is to work out the dimensions of each section of work.

Needles and Accessories 
Work through the pattern instructions making a note of all needles and equipment required, and ensure that it is all listed in the materials/accessories section. Check that size conversions are given for the needles or crochet hooks used, and that they are correct. Check that the needles seem sensible with the yarn weight used.

Abbreviations
Work through the pattern instructions and make a note of any abbreviations used. Check that there are explanations of any special abbreviations (ones not listed on the general abbreviations list). If the pattern is being published separately, then it is best to include all abbreviations for the avoidance of doubt.

Charts
If a chart is included, make sure that somewhere in the pattern, instructions are given on which way to read the rows of the chart. Ensure that the chart has a key, and that all symbols used on the chart are explained.

Phew! And that's only the very beginning of the process of checking a knitting pattern. I highly recommend checking any discrepancies or uncertainties with the pattern's designer. It may seem evident that something is incorrect, but sometimes, there is a good reason for a value or choice being unusual, and there is nothing worse than realising that you have introduced an error, when your job is to get rid of errors.

Why are so many vintage patterns in only one size?

One of the many jobs that has been keeping me out of mischief, is working on volume 2 of A Stitch in Time, with the wonderful Susan Crawford. So I was delighted when she asked me if I would like to write a blog post about some of the technical challenges of the job. I plan to write more on this subject over the coming weeks.

You can read all about why vintage patterns are only in one size on Susan's blog here: Why are so many vintage patterns only in one size?