Bother it

[celticdragonfly]

Okay, I set the sock aside so as to have mindless stockinette knitting available for evening stuff, so as not to have knitting then that would stop me from carrying on conversations with my darling selenite.

I was going to start the Christmas stocking for Alanna. But on reflection, I think maybe I want to buy more yarn. The kit I got has a lovely pattern, well written, a big beautiful color chart - very much the way a kit should be done. BUT - the yarn is rather coarse and rough, and has a fusty lanoliny smell to it. It's not like she's going to WEAR it. But... I do want to enjoy the process of knitting it. So I'm thinking of buying Shine Swish superwash yarn from Knitpicks in the appropriate colors. (Yes, I wrote Shine originally, I meant Swish, the 100% wool, my bad.)

And then I was going to think about doing the Ted baby hoody outfit pattern I got. It is SO cute. But the pattern is awful.

Dear Chris,

I'm writing to share with you my frustration as I read through the pattern I bought, and to try to inspire you to design for knitters more than sewers.

I got the pattern "Ted", the child's baby bear "hoody" and leggings. The picture is just SO adorable. It's a very cute pattern. I really want to do it for my new baby.

And yet, reading through the pattern, I have a dreadful feeling I'm never going to do it. Because it's really written for a seamstress, not a knitter.

The pieces are all knitted flat and then sewn together. It feels like the best use of the pattern would be if a seamstress just bought knit fabric and cut and sewed it. It's not a knit construction at all.

Raglan sweaters can be knit one piece in the round. You're spending a lot more time KNITTING that way, and a lot less sewing. Sleeves work so much better done primarily in the round. And leggings are just crying out to be two legs, knit in the round, and then joined together and the waist section knit in the round.

And having to sew over and cut a commercial zipper? I don't think I'd ever be up to doing that.

I know so many knitters who will start a project, and then they never finish it - it sits in the bag, pieces waiting to be put together - because they're knitters, they're good at that and enjoy that, but they're not seamstresses. And this sort of project is exactly why that happens.

Yeah, ideally I should just do for this what I've done for other patterns - keep the idea, and rewrite it for being knit in the round. But I don't think I'll be up for that. There are very few pictures - only the one shot of the finished garment - I can't even see where the zipper is supposed to go. (Ideally, I'd rewrite the zipper right out of it.) The schematic shows pictures of the leggings, the hood, one picture that I think is the sleeve, and one picture that I think is the back - but they're unlabeled. There's nothing showing where the zipper goes in the schematic. Reading through it, I'm not even sure where it can go from the directions. I see the description of the center of the front being knit in garter stitch, so I'm *suspecting* that you intend us to steek that for the zipper - gah, more seamstress
work! But it never actually says. Finishing just says "shorten zipper to correct length and stitch to fronts."

Please, please think about rewriting this pattern for someone who wants to KNIT, who wants to construct a garment by knitting, not by sewing. As it is - I feel like I wasted my money on an unclear, difficult to make item that's designed for a seamstress, not a knitter.

Okay, I had to REALLY fight the whole "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" programming - but darn it, they SHOULD get feedback.

My knitting day is SHOT. Bother.

On the good side, I thought my size 8 DPNs were lost, but I found them.

Comments

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Shine--that's the modal/cotton blend, right? I have some. It's very pretty, but it gets un-shiny fast if you need to frog it, and it's got no body at all. Great for a drapey sweater, not sure it'd work for a stocking.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, whoops. SWISH superwash. You're right, Shine is the cotton blend, and would not suit this project at all. I meant the 100% wool superwash.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Oh ha, yes, Swish makes a lot more sense. I haven't used it--let me know how it works up!

[mareklamo.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I thought your letter was very well-worded constructive criticism.