Hi,
lately, i've been thinking about literally writing my own pattern...i usually, just make it but then i think...i have to document the pattern...it's very confusing...
writing pattern with symbols seems easy...but it's a little bit confusing...especially when it comes to pattern scale...ho-boy...but the shape and the motif can be seen easier...i bought japanese motifs book, they wrote it with symbols...what i like is: with 1 symbols, it explains a lot...very efficient...
writing pattern with knitting terms and abbs is easier but to imagine the same and the motifs, hmmmm...
would you please share with me your experience in writing knitting pattern and how do you do it? May be the paper you use, grid paper or just plain paper...does the gauge have anything to do with any grid paper i use? i mean the scale and such...and which technique is best (or better) for 3D shaping, like hat, amigurumi, cylinder-shape-bag?...
any suggestion are welcome... :cheering:
i prefer to use symbols but yeah, those are problems i'm facing...
thank you so much for sharing and helping...
:muah:

Hi,

Sounds like you are getting really creative. Great!

You need to consider who you are writing the pattern for. I've created a number of patterns - usually on scraps of paper pinned to an existing photo of what I want my end result to be. Obviously that means I wrote my pattern for me, myself, and I. But I could easily re-create it.

If for a friend who also knits but has access to me for clarification, I'd likely write it out - K1, P1 ribbing for 6", work pattern to armholes, BO 6, then 1 each row @ armhole edge for 4" - that sort of thing. Note: I'm not really at ease with symbols or charts; I prefer written out like above.

Are you looking to publish your pattern? If so, I'd write it out as clearly as possible then beg several friends to knit the project from your directions. Any questions need to be addressed in your pattern before you submit it for publication. And if you can write it two ways - say like I did above, and also with symbols that you are comfortable with - then the likelihood of misunderstandings goes way down.

Hope this helps!

Dot

Carefully - with lots of proofreading - and the more sets of eyes that proofread it the better; even better to have someone knitting the instructions as they proof-read.

I designed and wrote a pattern for someone else. I used a blend of written instructions and charts. Did this namely because writing out the portion that was on the charts confused me too much when reading it. It was much easier for me to understand what in the world I meant when I looked at my chart. I just did it in an Excel document that I had resized the cells on. That way it was easy to manipulate and print.

I am knitting it now myself to work on different size instructions for the pattern (as original was a one size pattern).

Whatever you end up doing...I wish you the best and look forward to seeing what you created.