I’m currently checking all the details in a pattern before sending it back to the Tech Editor for another review. It’s not a difficult or particularly complicated pattern, but it does have increased stitches on every right side row. My dilemma was – how much detail do I need to put into the additional stitches within a pattern?  It seems that all of it is the rule.  I know I have worked patterns before that say something like – ‘maintain the pattern as the stitch count increases’.  This it seems,  is no longer sufficient. 

I know that this is right and it will reduce the level of questions that I’ll get once the pattern is released, but sometimes it does feel like I’m writing down the blatantly obvious.  It also means that the current pattern for my Counterchange shawl worked using a mosaic technique of slip stitches, will possibly have over 12 pages!  As the pattern has rib borders as well as the mosaic pattern I eventually decided that the best way to make it clear what was needed was to use a table format as well as a chart for each of the patterns.

It has been a very useful exercise in understanding the variations in colour and the subsequent slip stitches used to create the pattern.  It has I also been instructive for me knowing when to stop working on something like this as it can quickly lead to ‘brain melt’.