Spring has finally arrived!
The sun has been shining brighter and warmer in the past few weeks, and as surely as it announces the approching spring, it also indicates the time where I switch from winter knits to summer knits.
Today I present to you my friends my Golden Afternoon sweater, made from Euroflax Sport yarn and using Carole Francone’s Clementine Pullover pattern.
I made a few mods that are detailed on my project page, but it mainly consists of adding length, switching out the 1×1 rib by brioche and adding some short row shaping to the bottom edge to create more dynamic lines featuring a longer back and a shorter front.
As much as I love the finished object and the motif used in this pattern, I must say that I am quite dissapointed by the way the pattern itself was written. It’s the first time this has ever happened to me, but I felt the pattern was… Incomplete. Or rushed. Let me explain a little more what I mean.
First of all, I felt the English version of the pattern needed a lot of polishing. The pattern designer is French so I understand well her struggles (my first language is french too) but there was still a lot of avoidable mistakes, both on structure and vocabulary, making the pattern hard to understand.
Also, I found the pattern was not providing enough details on the construction and shaping of the garment. The best example I can give you is about the waist shaping. The pattern says to keep both side markers to place increases and decreases, but do not provide any information as to how the waist shaping should be worked. It only says to “work them in pattern”, but there is no indication as to how to do that (especially when working an all over lace pattern), and no indication of how MANY increase or decrease rows there should be, or how many rows apart they need to be placed. This is one example, but I’ve noticed instructions (and finishing touches) were missing everywhere in the pattern, including at the separation of the sleeves and the transition from ribbing to lace and lace to ribbing. Somehow I feel like I should have just looked up the motif and wrote the pattern myself. Am I weird? Is it wrong of me to assume that when you pay 5 euros (7.44$ CAN) for a pattern, the designer should have done that part of the work for you? Having written some patterns myself, I would find it absolutely unacceptable to rely so heavily on the knitter to figure things out themselves after making them pay for a pattern.
I feel robbed. Have any of you experienced something like that before?
Crafty Effie 
April 18, 2016 at 4:32 pm
Yes. Rebecca Danger does assorted knitted monsters. Cute as a button, but her book (The Big Book of Knitted Monsters) has NO instructions on joining limbs or finishing the cute creatures. You have to kind of figure that out for yourself. I’m 85% sure it’s because she didn’t want to infringe on your favorite finishing technique, if you’re use to doing toys one way. But as someone who has never knitted one before her book- a little direction in the finishing section would not go amiss.
April 18, 2016 at 8:49 pm
I know what you mean, I own the same book and finishing techniques are hard to come by!
April 18, 2016 at 8:11 pm
So frustrating because patterns are getting more and more expensive. I am constantly thinking twice now when I’m going to spend $7-10CAD on a pattern 😦
April 18, 2016 at 9:48 pm
I’ve never had that problem before, but given what happened this time I’ll definitely give it more thought when I purchase a pattern next!
April 18, 2016 at 11:04 pm
That’s frustrating! I would expect more detailed instructions if I paid 5 euro for a pattern. Luckily I haven’t run into a pattern like that before!
Also, I love the mods you made to this sweater. The hem line is so perfect!
April 18, 2016 at 11:15 pm
Thanks Becca! It’s good to know I’m not the only one feeling that way.
April 19, 2016 at 12:44 am
First, it’s gorgeous! And fits you so well. But yes, I do expect more from a paid for pattern. You don’t have to tell me what decrease to use, but do need to know how many and where to place them if I am going to get the same result.
April 19, 2016 at 1:47 am
Thank you! I totally agree with you, some details are not always necessary, but a certain amount of information is required in order to complete the project as presented in the pattern.