If you are a knitwear designer preparing your pattern for tech editing, you’re in the right place. You’ll find below some of the things you can check over before you hit send, to reduce the time it takes to have your pattern edited. Often the first pattern I check for a designer will take a little bit longer, just while I get to know their style and how their process works. But there are other things that I find I suggest often and I felt it could be helpful to note those down for newer clients.

1) Use a spreadsheet

For me this goes without saying but I know a lot of designers like to work with pen and paper. (This is also fine, all our brains are different!) However, with a spreadsheet you can save it and change the numbers at a later date if you need to, and it makes the pattern much easier for me to grade and check against standard measurements.

If you’ve used a spreadsheet for each of your patterns and they follow a similar process, this could help cut down how long it might take me to check the next pattern once we have ironed out any potential errors. It also means we can see what might have gone wrong if any number errors occur and it will make it easier to fix them.

I’m happy working in both Excel and Google Sheets

2) Stylesheets can be really beneficial

A stylesheet is a document that includes all of your formatting information, pattern writing style and abbreviations. It’s worth having because it can help us both ensure the pattern is consistent with the your other patterns and that everything is included. If you don’t have a stylesheet this is something I can look at making for you. You can use this to check against before sending me the next pattern to cut down on editing time.

3) Consider grading the pattern yourself

This is a controversial one as if you have never graded before, you will quite possibly get yourself into a right old pickle and you might end up throwing the whole thing in the bin! If a pattern is well graded and the designer has referred to sizing standards throughout the pattern, it can make things a bit quicker my end reduce the length of time it takes me to tech edit a knitting pattern. However, if this is something that terrifies you, let me do the dirty work for you!

Some body standards I recommend checking out:

Kim McBrien Evans
Ysolda
One Wild Designs

4) Once the pattern is written up and ready to send, go through it yourself once more.

Check through EVERYTHING and make sure it follows a logical order. Check the yarns are available. Make sure all the numbers add up and that the pattern is going to be easy for someone to follow if they’ve never knitted one of your patterns before. Make sure the photos are clear, and that all the charts look good and include written instructions that are correct.

Double check the measurements and any metric/imperial conversions are correct. Are all the pieces included and do they all adhere to the correct size? Is all the information there to join them together?

The more you can double check yourself the quicker it will be for me to go through it and understand it.

5) Make sure the images are clear

Sometimes I’ll need to zoom in on an image to count rows, or make sure colour work matches a chart, or that lace and cables are going to come out as planned. If you’re not sending me a garment then I’ll need very clear, decent resolution images of your project, to include any special details and stitch patterns.

6) Double check any relevant charts are included

An obvious one but this is easy to forget! You can send charts in whatever format you need to – Stitchmastery, Illustrator, PDF or a photo of a scrap of paper. If it’s the latter and you’d like me to make the chart for you then let me know when I give you an approximate quote as this is going to increase the time it takes me.

Are you ready?

If your pattern is all set and you’re ready to get another pair of eyes on it, click below to book in!